No cholera outbreak in Bali: Ministry

No cholera outbreak in Bali: Ministry

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Health says it is puzzled by a
report suggesting 77 Japanese tourists have been affected by
cholera after returning from the holiday island of Bali.

As far as the ministry is concerned, there has not been a
major cholera outbreak in Bali, or any other part of Indonesia
for that matter, spokeswoman Suheni Sujatmiko told the Antara
news agency yesterday.

To suggest that 77 Japanese tourists have caught the cholera
virus in Bali, in such a short time, there must have been a major
outbreak on the island, Suheni said. "But the reality is
completely the opposite."

The Ministry has already ordered the Health Office in Bali to
investigate the report, she added.

The Japanese ministry of health early this week said it had
received reports of 62 confirmed and 15 suspected cases of
cholera in 23 prefectures nationwide in the last two weeks.
According to Agence France Presse, all the patients had one thing
in common -- they had recently spent a holiday in Bali.

The report has also baffled Tokyo health officials because
there hadn't been any report of an outbreak in Bali.

A team from the Bali Health Office visited on Wednesday a
number of government and private hospitals to check out any cases
of cholera. The team also visited restaurants that are frequently
visited by Japanese tourists and took samples of their food for
laboratory tests, Antara reported.

"We took some lobster and fish for our samples," said a doctor
in the team.

Tourist officials and tour operators in Bali have been up in
arms over the barrage of publicity by the Japanese media about
the outbreak of cholera on the island.

Mardani Rata, head of the province's Tourism, Post and
Telecommunications office, said the Japanese media owed it to the
people of Bali to restore the good name of the island because
their reports were simply untrue.

Mardani said he had already told the Japanese television
network NHK, which had sent a crew to Bali, to refute the report.

He said the media publicity about the cholera outbreak was
hurting the tourism industry in Bali.

Since the report was false, the Japanese media ought to put
out a correction and restore the image of Bali, which is a
popular destination for Japanese tourists, he added. (emb)