Vaccinations for Bali: when a rabies jab is wise (travel tip)

Advice on vaccinations for Bali: anyone travelling to Bali needs jabs. You might say: I will only take the recommended travel vaccinations. Even so, we would advise having the rabies jab as well.

Recommended vaccinations for Bali: DTP and hepatitis A

For vaccination advice you follow the authorities. In the Netherlands the municipal health services are authoritative. So look at the recommended travel vaccinations.

• The health service points to DTP and hepatitis A as the recommended vaccinations for Bali.

So that is only a couple of jabs. They are recommended for a reason. Abroad the risk is greater.

Personal jabs for Bali: MMR and Japanese encephalitis

Some jabs are also ‘personal’.

• The MMR jab (mumps, measles and rubella), for instance. Almost everyone born after 1974 was vaccinated against these as a child.
• The jab against Japanese encephalitis is personal too. A species of mosquito transmits the viral infection. Very occasionally it leads to encephalitis.

“Travellers very rarely become infected”, says the health service about Japanese encephalitis.

Vaccination advice for Bali: a rabies jab?

You can get rabies if you are bitten or scratched by dogs or monkeys. Even cats can transmit it. There are stray dogs here and there on Bali, in the streets and on the beach.

Before our trip to Indonesia at the time, dionvacation® asked for vaccination advice from the Leeuwarden travel vaccination service.

• Rabies was said to be ‘not necessary’, because our team would be on Bali ‘for less than 3 months’.

It makes sense that the MMR jab and the one against Japanese encephalitis are personal. But on rabies we were less willing to go along with an argument like ‘length of stay’.

You can just as easily meet the ‘wrong’ stray dog on day 2 or in month 2 of your trip. In Leeuwarden they responded that on shorter trips Dutch travellers tend to stay at their resorts.

When a rabies jab is wise after all

Very occasionally we understand staying at the resort to bake on a quick European beach holiday. But seriously, on Bali? Do you travel halfway around the world only to stay in one place?

Bali you explore by scooter. Or you hire a Grab. You see waterfalls from the Tibumana from the Tegenungan. You marvel at the rice terraces of Tegalalang. Anyone who stays at the resort misses all of it.

Anyone who explores Bali experiences a tropical daydream. Such a dream turns into a nightmare if you run into stray dogs and rabies. Which makes a rabies jab wise in any case.

Rabies almost always leads to death. You can usually be helped well, if you have been vaccinated beforehand. Skipping the vaccination because you are on Bali ‘for less than 3 months’? That may be risky.