Parts of Dominican capital on cholera alert

Published May 17, 2011 at 6:07 am

In this Wednesday, May 4, 2011 photo, a member of a volunteer crew searches a building as part of an effort to recover and bury dead bodies for health and religious reasons in Misrata, Libya. Misrata doctors estimate that more than 1,000 people have been killed in their city in the two months of fighting between rebels and government forces. Most of the bodies the recovery team finds are soldiers from Gadhafi's regime. \"When a fighter gets killed, his friends take his body away,\" said a team member. He added that Gadhafi's troops didn't seem to do the same.

Photo by AP

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A wave of new cholera cases has prompted the Dominican Republic's Health Ministry to declare a state of alert in 17 neighborhoods in the capital.

Doctors are out in force looking for people with symptoms of the waterborne disease. Vice Minister of Health Jose Rodriguez said Monday that 16 people are hospitalized with suspected cholera. He says all are in stable condition but there have been two deaths in recent days.

Cholera had not been detected in the Dominican Republic until after the outbreak in neighboring Haiti in October.

Fourteen people have died from the outbreak, and 750 cases have been detected in the Dominican Republic. Cholera has killed nearly 5,000 in Haiti.