Dutch Tourist Isolated in Bali with H1N1 Symptoms

(5/12/2009)

A 32-year-old Dutch woman is now in the special isolation ward of Bali's Sanglah General Hospital after health officers identified her as a potential H1N1 sufferer when she landed at Bali's international airport off a Malaysian Airline flight on Sunday, May 10, 2009.

The woman, Michele Van Dorsen, was running a mild fever, experiencing problems swallowing, and complaining of respiratory difficulties - all of which resulted in her classification by health officials as someone suffering from an Influenza-Like Illness. A number of well-rehearsed measures were immediately put into place that saw the woman placed in an isolation area at the airport from where she was transferred by ambulance to the Nusa Indah isolation unit at Sanglah Hospital. The woman's transfer was carried out in a specially equipped ambulance with the driver and all accompanying medical personnel fully suited in protective contamination gear.

According to press reports, Van Dorsen began her trip from Amsterdam, transiting briefly in Kuala Lumpur where she changed aircraft. Her health condition first became evident on board her flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bali, causing the pilot to radio ahead to Bali As a result, a medical team came on board the aircraft immediately after landing to commence the assesment, care and isolation of the ill passenger.

Van Dorsen told health officials that she has had no known contact with a H1N1 sufferer. Her condition is stated as "good" by her attending physicians who, as an added precaution, have administered Tamiflu while awaiting the results of medical tests to confirm whether or not she is affected by the virus.

As an added precaution to prevent the spread of disease, all passengers sitting within several rows of Van Dorsen have undergone close medical evaluation.

Holland, the country from which Van Dorsen began her journey is listed as "endemic" with confirmed cases of H1N1 reported by Dutch health officials.