MELBOURNE - AUSTRALIA on Thursday urged anyone feeling unwell to consider postponing travel overseas after Indonesia raised concerns that tourists were bringing swine flu to the resort island of Bali.
As cases in the worst-hit Asia-Pacific nation topped 3,000, a health department spokesman said tourists should comply with Indonesia's screening measures.
AUTHORITIES in Victoria reacted furiously earlier this month to reports that Singapore and Malaysia had warned against non-essential travel to the state, labelling the action 'immature' and 'hasty'.
Victoria has almost half of Australia's 3,199 cases and has recorded the country's only two swine flu-related deaths, a 50-year-old woman with bone marrow cancer and a man, 35, suffering from diabetes and morbid obesity.
'We'd also say to Australians that they need to respect the regulations in other countries,' she said.
Quizzed about Indonesia's concerns, the spokesman pointed out that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had not recommended any travel restrictions as a result of the A(H1N1) pandemic.
'Australians who are going overseas should consider their health and perhaps postpone travel if they are unwell,' she added.
Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Wednesday she was 'very worried' that Australians who flock to Bali's famous surf beaches would bring the virus to the vast archipelago.
Indonesia's first two swine flu cases have both been linked to Australia.
One is a pilot who flew from Perth before being diagnosed, and the other is a Briton who lives in Victoria state, Australia's infection hotspot.
Ms Supari said Indonesia would be 'more vigilant about Australian tourists' but added they were not being singled out for checks.
The measures introduced in Bali, including airport body scanners and health questionnaires, are standard and have also been adopted in Australia. -- AFP
