TV3 informs that the taping of this year’s Robinson Expedition will continue, but that the entire production is moving to a different part of Malaysia. Host Jakob Kjeldberg is still affected by Dengue Fever.
After a quarantine period of ten days, STRIX Television and TV3 have just decided to continue the filming. This is happening after doctors, experts, and Malaysian health authorities have reported that it would be responsible to continue the expedition.
Tonight, the quarantine the entire crew had been under since they were evacuated because of a Dengue Fever epidemic on the production island Pulau Besar in Malaysia, was lifted.
The islands the contestants lived on during the taping have never been affected and none of them have ever caught the disease. But this year, several employees including locally hired Malays and Scandinavians caught the disease and have since then been under intense medical attention in the city of Johor Bahru.
Moving to West Malaysia
After advice from MediaMedics AB, the Expedition’s own medical team, and the Malaysian health authorities as well as conversations with employees and contestants, STRIX Television have together with TV3 Denmark and TV3 Norway decided to carry on with the expedition. Everyone wanted to continue the adventure but in a different geographical spot.
The decision has also been made on the basis of the latest research which shows that one does not run an increased risk even if one has been exposed to the disease before. STRIX Television and TV3 are now moving the production to West Malaysia, but they do not wish to inform the public where until the expedition is over.
Nobody wants to go home
”For ten years, we have been producing Robinson off Pulau Besar without a hint of the disease. The risk of Dengue Fever is neither bigger og smaller here than the one any tourist travelling to Thailand, Malaysia, y many other countries on the southern hemisphere, runs,” says the Director of STRIX Television in Denmark, Fredrik Hillerbrand and continues:
“But right now it is not responsible to stay in Besar or in the islands nearby because of the Dengue Fever. That is why we have been researching whether it would be possible to safely move production to a different area. The Malaysian authorities, experts, and our medical team have all approved, so now we are right in the middle of moving everything.”
All of the contestants have declared that they want to finish the adventure they have embarked on. Everyone has been given a chance to go home but none of them have accepted that offer. Jakob Kjeldberg, the host, has been given the same option. He caught the disease a couple of days ago.
Kjeldberg: ”I am still affected”
”I am still affected but it is getting better. And I really want to, just like all the tough contestants, finish this gripping expedition. After speaking to the doctors and my family, of course, we have all agreed that this job has to be finished. If I or my doctors thought it was an irresponsible thing to do, I wouldn’t continue on this year’s expedition,” Jakob Kjeldberg says from his hotel room in Johor Bahru.
