01:17 22/11/2010
Russia's sanitary watchdog will decide this week on whether to temporarily ban Russians from travelling to the Dominican Republic due to cholera outbreak in neighboring Haiti, Russia's chief doctor said.
At least 1,110 people have died and 18,380 have been hospitalized since the disease broke out about four weeks ago, according to the most recent data from the Haitian health ministry. Sporadic cases of cholera have been detected in the Dominican Republic and the United States.
"So far, we have optimistic reports about passengers arriving from the Dominican Republic. But the coming week would be decisive... We would either move from travel recommendations to a ban, or we would just insist that our citizens should exercise caution," Gennady Onishchenko said late on Sunday.
He added that the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)'s cholera outlook for the Dominican Republic was "unfavorable."
"For the first time PAHO expressed concern about the possibility of cholera spreading to the Dominican Republic and further beyond the [Hispaniola] island," he said.
Almost 48,000 Russian tourists visited the Dominican Republic in January-September, up 54.5% from the same period last year.
MOSCOW, November 22
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