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.