Following reports that Bali was facing a shortage of the anti-rabies vaccine, the head of the Public Health Office (Bali region) assured scared citizens that Buleleng, Jembrana, Gianyar and Denpasar are now well stocked up, reports Tribun Bali. Other regions in Bali have also filed procurement orders to the distributor/producer of the vaccine.
According to Bio Farma Marketing Director Mahendra Suhardono, the delays in getting the required stock to Bali is due to technical issues relating to importation. Bio Farma previously produced the anti-rabies vaccine themselves but after seeing a decline in the number of rabies cases, it became very costly for them to continue commercial production of the vaccine. For that reason, Bio Farma (a State-Owned Enterprise) decided to cease production and opted to contract with external suppliers who had the capacity to produce large volumes of anti-rabies vaccine.
Mahendra asserts that while the supply of the vaccine has not reached the required level, Bali is not in shortage of the vaccine and they will work as fast as possible to ensure the remaining supplies get to the island.
While this news gives us a little peace of mind, we think that it’s only wise to continue straying as far as we can from angry looking wild dogs and monkeys.
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