TOURISTS are advised to have rabies vaccinations before arriving in Bali after three deaths from dog bites in the past month.

Tabanan is the latest area to be struck by the rabies epidemic, following neighbouring Denpasar and the Badung Regency, which includes the popular destinations of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak.

The head of the rabies control team at Sanglah public hospital, Raka Sudewi, advised tourists to avoid the area because local hospitals had exhausted their stocks of the post-exposure rabies vaccine.

Jakarta has been unable to provide vaccine supplies.

“We have 50 to 60 new suspected cases every day at Sanglah Hospital,” she said.

Ten locals from Badung have died from rabies since November. Following the recent deaths in Tabanan, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warned travellers to avoid contact with dogs, cats, monkeys and other animals.

SOS International, one of two hospitals catering to foreigners in Kuta, said yesterday it had no post-exposure vaccine stocks and had pre-exposure vaccine for only one or two people.

The Bali International Medical Centre said yesterday it had supplies of only the slow-acting pre-exposure vaccination, Verorab, which was not effective after exposure.

In an effort to control the virus in Bali, AusAid has ploughed $850,000 into an animal vaccination program, of which $500,000 was provided to the WHO in July for dog vaccines, collars and tags. A further $250,000 will be provided through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research to strengthen surveillance and outbreak responses.

Bali has received 80,000 doses of animal rabies vaccine from Jakarta. But as the mass inoculation of dogs, cats and monkeys across the island gets under way, the campaign is not without controversy.

Some of Bali’s thousands of street dogs are being put down with strychnine-laced food and poisoned darts, raising the ire of the Australian-funded Bali Animal Welfare Association.

“This is a horrific way to die. It’s inhumanely destroying dogs. Euthanasia is not WHO-accepted,” said BAWA founder Janice Girardi. She claimed that in the past two weeks 1000 stray dogs had been killed with strychnine-laced sausages and meatballs. It was also endangering human lives.

Last week, a man was taken to Tabanan Hospital after eating a sausage laced with poison to kill dogs. He was later discharged.