An Australian tourist in Bali experienced an unexpected incident when bitten by a monkey at one of the tourist locations.
Jami Groves, active on Instagram with the username @jamigroves, shared her unfortunate experience while on holiday in Bali. Groves reported that while she was enjoying posing with a monkey at the Ubud Monkey Forest, Gianyar, Bali, one of her body parts was suddenly bitten by the animal.
When Groves was taken to a hospital, as she told Yahoo! News on Friday, the 7th of June, she had to spend US$6,000 or approximately Rp97 million for the rabies vaccine. She explained that this amount of expense was deemed necessary to prevent the rabies virus from spreading to her nervous system. In addition, she also had to undergo eight doses of anti-rabies injections.
In the video footage, Groves, who appears still lying in the hospital bed, is also seen talking to the doctor treating her while laughing in surprise at the bill amount.
Responding to the high price of the rabies vaccine for foreign tourists, the Chairman of the Bali Region Private Hospital Association (ARSSI), Dr. I. B. G. Fajar Manuaba, SpOG, MARS, told the local press in Bali that it should first be clarified which hospital the patient in question was being treated.
“Please inform us first where this patient is being treated. If there is a problem with medical services at the hospital, the patient can report it to the ARSSI (the Indonesian Private Hospital Association) or PERSI (the Indonesian Hospital Association) so that the problem can be analyzed proportionally. It is not appropriate to divulge such problems on social media,” remarked Manuaba on Saturday, the 8th of June.
Manuaba also observed that the real condition experienced by the patient was not depicted on the Groves’ social media post. In addition, he noted that the price of the rabies vaccine depends on the brand of the vaccine itself.
Tjokorda Bagus Pemayun, the Head of the Bali Tourism Office, said he was surprised by this viral incident. In his view, this reflects the serious concern of tourists regarding the risk of contracting rabies from monkey bites. He also hopes that the managers of tourist attractions, namely the Monkey Forest in Gianyar and Uluwatu, will increase awareness of the importance of strict SOPs in managing interactions between tourists and wild animals.
“We will ensure that the management of this tourist attraction enforces the SOP properly, especially in areas where monkeys frequently interact,” asserted Pemayun.
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