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Venezuelan Cholera Cases Rise


Venezuela's Health Minister Eugenia Sader (C), accompanied by Vice-Minister Miriam Moran (R) and another health official, offers a press conference regarding the cholera cases in the country and the emergency plan activated in order to prevent the disease
Venezuela's Health Minister Eugenia Sader (C), accompanied by Vice-Minister Miriam Moran (R) and another health official, offers a press conference regarding the cholera cases in the country and the emergency plan activated in order to prevent the disease

Venezuela's health minister says the number of people who contracted cholera while visiting the Dominican Republic last month has risen to 185.

Eugenia Sader said the patients were among 450 people who attended a wedding in the Dominican Republic.

Venezuela had urged everyone who attended the wedding to get tested after more than 100 people got sick.

The Associated Press says Dominican officials blame the outbreak on lobster purchased in a town bordering Haiti, where cholera has killed 4,000 people since October.

U.S. researchers say tests indicate that the deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti likely came from South Asia and resembles a strain found in Bangladesh.

The scientists issued their assessment in a study released in December, but say they cannot trace who or what precisely carried the disease to Haiti.

Haiti is struggling to recover from a January earthquake that left more than 200,000 people dead and 1 million homeless. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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