A lavish party at a luxury resort with golf, horse riding, swimming pools and lobster: not the typical setting for a cholera outbreak.
Casa de Campo, a five-star complex in the Dominican Republic, has been hit by the disease which has swept though slums and villages in neighbouring Haiti [see footnote].
Dozens of international guests at a family celebration – some reports said it was a wedding – were stricken with vomiting and diarrhoea after eating apparently contaminated lobster.
Dominican health officials said that at least 37 of the 500 guests had tested positive for cholera, including Fernando Hazoury, whose family owns a separate luxury resort, and guests from Spain, Mexico and the US.
The health minister, Bautista Rojas, said lobsters for last Saturday's wedding came from Pedernales, a town bordering Haiti, where about 3,800 have died and 189,000 fallen ill since October.
The disease, a south Asian strain suspected to have originated with Nepalese UN peacekeepers stationed in central Haiti, is transmitted by contaminated faeces in water sources. Dehydrated victims can die within hours, but symptoms are easily treated.
At least 21 Venezuelans who attended the event have been hospitalised, according to Venezuela's health minister, Eugenia Sader. The disease was under control and Venezuelans had no cause for concern, she added.
"We want to inform the nation that it must remain calm because all the cases we have are of those who attended a family gathering in Dominican Republic."
• This footnote was appended on 1 February 2011. Casa de Campo has asked us to make clear that it is aware of the situation resulting from a private event with an outside caterer held at the resort. The F&B department, guests and staff at the resort were and still are unaffected, as the caterer is not affiliated with Casa de Campo and the event was hosted in a privately owned villa.
