Bali welcomes best July on record amid bird flu deaths
Bali’s record-breaking July figures are being marred by new deaths related to bird flu. While today’s death is yet to be confirmed as indeed related to bird flu, Indonesian officials have confirmed it sent samples to the World Health Organization following the August 13 death of Balinese woman.
Preliminary foreign tourist arrival figures for July 2007 record 164,618 visitors to Bali, according to BaliDiscovery.com
The new figures represent a whopping double-digit increase of 34.9 percent ahead of the same month in 2006 and allowing July 2007 to qualify as the “best July on record” for Bali tourism.
According to Bali Discovery, January to July’s 2007 arrivals are nearing the 1 million mark, totaling 910,567, an improvement of 35 percent as compared to the same period in 2006 (674,561).
Meanwhile, a second Balinese woman may have died from bird flu. Bali Health Agency chief Dr Dewa Ketut Oka said the local woman died in the island's Sanglah Hospital about 2:00 PM on Tuesday.
According to a published report, the Balinese woman was admitted on Sunday with bird flu-like symptoms including fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. Preliminary test results indicated that she had the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
While health officials in Indonesia have yet to confirm the death to be bid-flu related, the news comes only days following the death of another woman, a 29-year-old woman from Jembrana regency who died on Aug. 13 supposedly of bird flu.
August 21, 2007
Posted in: Indonesia