Depends on the cheese, mature cheese (due to the relevant microbial consortia destroying bad bacteria - hence mature cheeses good reputation for being a food product over thousands of years) are quite resistant to being contaminated by bad bacteria due to excessive quanities of Lactobacilli - in most fermented foods. However, short life cheese can be contaminated by bad bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes which kills, also by Mycobacterium bovis (a source of tuberculosis).
Public health measures are to protect. Older people, such as many of the Asean Now members, would be quite vulnerable to bad food poisoning from contaminated food.