Dominican Republic: cholera outbreak feared

The Pastoral Commission of the Catholic bishops of the Dominican Republic, which provides chaplaincy and other services to prisons, accused the National Directorate of Prisons (NDP) of hiding information about cases of cholera in the prisons and jails of the Caribbean nation.

According to local daily Listin Diario, the office for the pastoral care in prisons believes that the NDP must work to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease.

The Pastoral Commission says there are cases of cholera in prisons, and that the unsanitary conditions of the prisons make inmates more vulnerable to the disease. The DNP claims that disease in prisons is under control and that there are no outbreaks of cholera in any of the detention centers. According to data published by the local press, about 92 people have died of cholera epidemic in the Dominican Republic that originated in neighboring Haiti, which has already caused about 6,000 deaths ....