SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Officials in the Dominican Republic are warning people living near low-lying areas flooded by recent rainstorms to be on alert for two diseases that have already killed 53 people and sickened thousands.
Health Minister Bautista Rojas says communities hit hard by the July storms have seen an outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever as well as leptospirosis. It spreads through exposure to water contaminated with urine from infected animals.
Rojas said Tuesday that health workers will go to rural communities in the central Cibao valley. State laboratories have already provided free testing for the diseases near the capital, Santo Domingo.
Rojas says 26 people have died of dengue and 27 of leptospirosis.
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Via a blog called Mi Desahogo.com:
El dengue afecta a candidata Miss República Dominicana
.[Dengue hits Miss Dominican Republic candidate] Excerpt, with my translation:
Lucía Olivero Montero, quien ha sido ganadora de concursos de modelaje y fue candidata a Miss República Dominicana el pasado año, está recluida en una clínica de esta ciudad afectada de dengue clásico. Lucía Olivero Montero, who has won modelling competitions and was a candidate last year for Miss Dominican Republic, is in a clinic with classic dengue. Olivero Montero, de 22 años, ocupa la habitación 113 de Centro Médico de León de la avenida General Cabral de aquí desde el jueves de la pasada semana. Olivero Montero, 22, has been in room 113 of León Medical Centre on General Cabral Avenue since last Thursday.
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