Beware of brain infection

Beware of brain infection

LONDON (Reuter): Doctors recommended on Friday that tourists
visiting the Indonesian island of Bali should get vaccinations
against Japanese encephalitis, a severe brain infection carried
by mosquitoes.

In a letter to the Lancet medical journal Dr. Bengt Wittesjo
of Central Hospital in Karlskrona, Sweden and U.S. Army
researchers described the case of a 60-year old woman who came
down with Japanese encephalitis after visiting Bali.

"One day after her return to Sweden she fell ill with
headache, myalgias (muscle aches), fever and difficulty with
speech," they wrote.

She was diagnosed as having Japanese encephalitis which
affects 50,000 people a year in southeast Asia. Hers was the
second case of a short-term tourist visiting the resort island
getting the infection.

People staying in the area for long periods are usually told
to get vaccinations. "We suggest that vaccination against JE
should be considered also for short-term tourists visiting Bali,"
the doctors wrote.