The head of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that other countries had not reported a dysentery outbreak among tourists returning from Bali because they did not have Taiwan's stringent SARS controls.
"Only Taiwanese tourists seem to have been affected, because we have fever monitoring [facilities] at the airport, so we catch the people who have a fever," CDC Director-General Su Ih-jen (
"Other countries don't have this measure, so they weren't able to detect infected people," he said.
The monitoring system was set up during the SARS outbreak earlier this year to identify passengers who showed signs of fever, one of the symptoms of the disease that spread across Asia and other parts of the world.
Su said that because the symptoms for dysentery included a high temperature, travelers with the disease were automatically requested by airport staff to supply bacterial swabs. Subsequent tests on the swabs by the CDC then alerted officials to the dysentery outbreak.
Su also said that the CDC's initial inquiries to Balinese health authorities had Indonesian officials shaking their heads over the severity of the problem.
"The officials from Indonesia said to us, `Gastroenteritis is quite common. Why are you Taiwanese people so scared of this?'" Su said.
"It would seem that [stomach complaints] over there are quite common," he said.
Gastroenteritis and dysentery both cause inflammation of the digestive tract. However, while gastroenteritis is a common complaint among tourists, dysentery can be fatal if not treated.
"[The Indonesian officials] didn't seem to think it was a problem," Su said.
According to CDC officials, the number of confirmed dysentery cases among tourists who have recently returned from Bali now stands at 103.
Meanwhile, the tourism industry yesterday reported that the outbreak of dysentery cases among Taiwanese tourists who visited Bali last month has had a noticeable impact on travel to the island.
Wu Yen-hui, a spokesperson from the Taipei Association of Travel Agents, said the outbreak among the tourists last month had adversely affected the business of domestic travel agencies, prompting ticket prices on regular flights from Taipei to Bali to drop by more than 30 percent from the high-season mark for July and October, normally costing NT$12,000 for two on a return trip.
Charter plane services arranged by travel agencies in southern Taiwan have been the worst affected, however, with nearly half of customers with group package bookings slated to depart in December canceling reservations, Wu said.
Wu added that travel agencies have yet to cancel the tours for fear that it would deal a further blow to the market.
Wu predicted that low ticket prices would remain until the middle of next month and that prices may rise for the winter and spring holiday seasons.
A total of 99 Taiwanese tourists who traveled to Bali between Nov. 7 and Nov. 22 have been confirmed as having dysentery as of Tuesday. The first case was reported on Nov. 23.
Additional reporting by CNA
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