RABID FEAR: A doctor from the Yudisthira Swarga Foundation for Wild Dogs Welfare administers a lethal injection to a dog suspected of carrying the rabies virus at the village of Ungasan in the Uluwatu District, on Thursday. As many as 17 wild and domesticated dogs have been culled in the area after fears of a rabies outbreak. The disease has not been seen in Bali for the last several decades. (JP/Andra Wisnu)

The Badung Health Agency as of Friday vaccinated 76 residents of Ungasan village, Uluwatu, who were bitten by dogs following four fatalities in the area officials suspect were caused by rabies.

Gede Agung Mayun Dharma Atmaja, the agency's head, said his office had ordered the vaccines from Jakarta immediately upon hearing reports the deaths might have been caused by the rabies virus, a disease that has not been seen in Bali for several decades.

"We are treating this as an extraordinary event, we don't want to be careless in handling this matter because Bali has been rabies free so far," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"Furthermore, there has been an increasing number of dog bite cases, so we had the vaccines delivered from Jakarta immediately and the people who have been vaccinated are in a healthy condition."

Recently, two adults and two children from the same village of Ungasan died of suspected rabies infection. In response, local officials and the Yudisthira Swarga foundation for wild dogs welfare conducted a mass dog culling sweep of the village.

As of Friday, 17 wild and domesticated dogs had been tested positively for the disease and been put down using lethal injection. In the test, a small amount of the animal's brain fluid is extracted under anesthetic.

Mayun said the agency was awaiting test results of dogs in the area from the Bogor Veterinary Hall in West Java.

"It will take about 21 days before they have the results," he said.

He said the agency, in cooperation with the Badung Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Agency, had been visiting families in the village to inform them of the possible endemic, and to ask them to keep their dogs on leashes.

"This has been done at the request of the villagers. That way we can tell which dogs must be culled because the domesticated ones have been tied to their owners' homes," said Gede Ashrama, deputy head of the Badung Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Agency, who was present during the interview.

When asked why the agencies had not conducted a mass vaccination on the village's 170 families, Ashrama said such a move would only be prompted if the test subjects were found positive for the disease.

"If the results come back positive, then we will have to conduct a quarantine," he said.

"The most important thing right now is to continue observing the population of wild dogs in the area and to continue to identify the people who have suffered dog bites."

Rabies, a virus that causes inflammation of the brain, can be transmitted through saliva and blood and is typically carried by dogs, bats and monkeys.

The disease has an incubation period of two weeks. Within two months of infection at the latest a subject will develop a fear of sunlight and a reluctance to drink water.

In the final stages, the disease induces periods of mania, lethargy and eventually coma. Death from rabies generally occurs due to respiratory failure.

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