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Holiday isle fears impact of H5N1

Twenty-nine-year-old Sri Widiartini's life on Bali was a world away from the glamorous resorts, beaches and nightlife that sum up the Bali experience for most visitors.

She had never even visited Kuta, Seminyak or Ubud, Bali's main tourist resorts. She led a quiet life in Tukaraya, a village just outside Negara, the capital of Bali's westernmost district, Jembrana.

But Widiartini's death from H5N1 bird flu has sent ripples of fear through the island, and its tourism-dependent economy.

'She was a happy and simple girl,' her  mother Nengah Sriati, 60, said.

After Widiartini died on August 12, two laboratory tests confirmed that she was Bali's first H5N1 victim. Nine days later, a second woman, Ayu Srinadhi, 40, from Tabanan regency, was also confirmed to have died from bird flu. Tabanan  is only 20km  from Kuta.

Prior to Widiartini's death, her five-year old daughter, Dian, had died under suspicious circumstances. Although medical tests were not carried out, Widiartini's father, Nengah Sukadara, has no doubts about the cause of the child's death.

'My granddaughter had the same symptoms as Widiartini. I'm sure she died of bird flu too,' the 69-year old said.

Widiartini's husband, Budi Setiawan, 34, said they both died very suddenly. 'My daughter came down with a fever. Local doctors thought she had typhoid. Then a few days later she died in hospital. My wife got a fever as well, and two weeks later she died.'

Dian, Widiartini and Setiawan shared a modest two-bedroom house with Widiartini's parents. The house is hidden in one of the backstreets of Tukaraya village. An open-style living room leads to a garden where chickens used to roam free.

'It is common for people like us to have chickens in the house. We had eight, and the neighbour had many more. A few started dying suddenly a month ago,' Mr Sukadara said.

'We didn't touch them. We pushed them into a hole with bamboo sticks and buried them. We thought it could be bird flu.'

Tukaraya village head Ranu Putra, 43, said chickens started dying in the area in May and that the government ordered the culling of poultry after Widiartini's death. 'There are many children here and people are scared of the virus. Most people have complied with the order,' he said.

Nearly 6,000 chickens have been killed island-wide since.

Widiartini's father  said he would  never eat chicken again. Her mother  said  the chickens had 'killed her soul' too.

'This was a happy house. Now it is silent and sad. I sit in this corner all day and try to keep busy, but I cannot stop crying,' she said, while weaving banana leaves into baskets used for offerings to the Hindu gods.

Mr Sukadara said Widiartini had been  a good worker. 'She worked in a  garment shop sowing sarongs. In a good month she would earn 400,000 rupiah [HK$330].'

The sum  would barely pay for one night in a good hotel in Seminyak or Ubud, or cover dinner in one of the island's many top-end restaurants.

Only three hours' drive away on a narrow, winding road, Bali's tourist resorts are  a world removed from Tukaraya village. However, local authorities are worried that the death of Widiartini - and the fear of a larger epidemic - could set back  the tourism renaissance the island has been seeing  after the exodus that followed terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005.

This summer, hotel occupancy rates have been high, helped by a  series of international dance parties.

Preliminary figures show 164,618 foreign tourists arrived in July, up  34.9 per cent  from the same month the year before.

According to Bali Discovery, arrivals for the first half of this year were near  the 1 million mark, an improvement of 35 per cent compared with 2006.

Local officials estimate that tourism is the source of income for 65 per cent of the island's workforce. They also say the bird flu outbreak is under control and that tourists don't need to panic. But with 84 of the 105 Indonesians to have caught bird flu having died, the country  has already recorded more deaths from bird flu than any other country.

Giuseppe and Alessandra, two Italian tourists who have been touring the island for the past two weeks  , said they didn't know about Widiartini's death and the bird flu outbreak in Bali.

'If it had happened before we booked our holiday, we would have thought about it longer,' they said.



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