Malaria warning for Dominican Republic

Friday, January 7, 2005

ATLANTA, USA: Visitors traveling to some parts of the Dominican Republic should take the drug chloroquine to protect themselves from a malaria outbreak, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

According to Reuters, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the warning after 17 cases of the mosquito-borne disease surfaced among U.S., Canadian and European tourists who had visited La Altagracia and Duarte provinces in the Caribbean nation.

Those provinces, home to the popular Punta Cana resort area and the commercial town San Francisco de Macoris, had been considered malaria-free. The Dominican Republic reports about 2,000 cases of malaria each year.

The Atlanta-based CDC said the recent cases among Western tourists were diagnosed in November and December and might be linked to Hurricane Jeanne, which struck the Dominican Republic last September.

"The east coast, including Punta Cana and the Bavaro Zone, received heavy rains and flooding, which might have resulted in increased breeding of mosquitoes," the CDC said in a weekly health report.

Malaria, which kills between 1 million and 2.7 million people each year, is rare in the United States but remains endemic in much of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Marked by high fevers, chills, night sweats, headaches and abdominal pain, malaria can cause severe respiratory problems and other complications when not promptly treated. 

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