As Bali battles rabies surge, does dog meat raise the risk?

In a quieter part of western Bali, far from the crowds and chaos of the south, a 38-year-old housewife was bitten by a stray cat while hanging out laundry in May.Within weeks, she was dead: one of five people killed by rabies on the Indonesian resort island so far this year.The following month, a rabid dog kept as a family pet in the same region, Jembrana regency, attacked two children and an adult. All three survived, thanks to swift post-exposure vaccination after tests confirmed that the animal was infected.But they were far from the only victims. Between January and May 2026 alone, almost 30,000 people on the Hindu-majority island were bitten by suspected rabid animals and 21,000 received emergency vaccinations.Bali, together with East Nusa Tenggara province around 600km (370 miles) to the east, has the highest number of rabies cases in the whole of Indonesia, according to its Health Ministry. The viral disease is considered endemic in 26 of Indonesia’s 38 provinces.A person stands among mangrove trees at sunset in East Sumba, Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province, last month. Photo: AFP“Mass vaccination is urgently needed given the relatively high number of rabies cases recorded in Jembrana during the first half of this year,” I Gusti Ngurah Putu Sugiarta, the regency’s top animal health official, said in a statement following the latest attack.