DOMINICAN REPUBLIC SICK TOURISTS: 70 AND COUNTING

Nearly 70 tourists have reported getting violently ill while vacationing in the Dominican Republic since March, according to IWasPoisoned.com, a commonly used website that tracks food-borne illness outbreaks. That’s up from just 10 reported illnesses in the country for all of 2018. More than 45 of them identified themselves as guests at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana. Patrick Quade, founder of iwaspoisoned.com, adding that he consulted with scientists regarding his findings. One expert Quade consulted, Lee-Ann Jaykus, a food microbiologist in the department of food science at North Carolina State University, said exposure to an insecticide chemical known as organophosphate could result in severe vomiting and diarrhea, but in dire cases it could cause a cardiac crisis. The families of at least three people who died at resorts on the island last month were told that their loved ones died from pulmonary edema and respiratory failure. The vast majority of incidents were in the Punta Cana region and at the Hard Rock property, but guests staying at other hotels, including Vista Sol Punta Cana Beach, Hotel Riu Palace Punta Cana and Iberostar Bavaro in Punta Cana, also reported illnesses on the website.
* You expect to vacation in the Third World, and you wind up in the Next World.
* On the bright side, you probably will never catch West Nile or any other mosquito-carried illness down there.