monhann2
18.01.05, 18:37
Jesli ktos wybiera sie na Dominikane, zwlaszcza do Puerto Plata powinien byc
swiadomy bakcyla, ktory tam ostatnio panuje:
"Bug sweeps hotel complex
Dominican Republic affected
Plane ride back `disgusting'
PHILIP MASCOLL
STAFF REPORTER
The debilitating stomach bug that wrecked the Christmas holidays for
Canadians at a group of top-rated resorts in the Dominican Republic is still
plaguing the island.
All of the reported cases in Puerto Plata have been in the complex of hotels —
the Mambo, Merengue and Bachata — run by the Spanish resort giant Riu.
Health and safety contractors had been called in to check the food and water
supplies at the hotel, Melanie Laugisch, assistant manager at the Bachata,
said last night.
"We are not sure if this is a flu passing from one client to another," she
said. "Now everything is checked more than normal. "We think it is like a
flu ... passing around like a virus."
Of 1,200 guests in the Bachata's 600 rooms, she said, nine were sick
yesterday, but only one was sick enough to require a doctor.
Sales representative Sherri Michell of Dundas, Ont., near Hamilton, went to
the Riu Merengue with her husband and two teenage sons for a vacation between
Dec. 20 and Jan. 3.
They returned sick, weak and with an $800 medical bill. But the family was
forced to stay the full two weeks because all flights were booked, Michell
said in an interview yesterday.
"Our plane ride back (on Jan. 3) was disgusting," she said. "There were so
many (people) sick that people were getting duty-free bags to be sick in and
the flight staff were advising people not to use the bathrooms unless
absolutely necessary, because they were beyond disgusting."
Although the serious diarrhea and vomiting went away after a day and a half,
Michell said, they were afraid to eat after that because they didn't know
what was causing the problem.
Jill Wykes, vice-president of communications for Sunquest, a tour operator,
said the company had become aware a number of passengers were taken ill on
holiday at the Riu Bachata with stomach flu-like symptoms.
Those Sunquest passengers who have proof of becoming ill at the hotel during
this time period will be offered a free holiday at a Riu hotel in the future
as a goodwill gesture.
"In the meantime, Sunquest has, as a precaution, stopped selling the Riu
Bachata for the short term and has moved passengers who were intending to
stay there until the end of January," Wykes said in a statement. "This
decision will be reviewed once Riu has determined the cause and its course of
action."
She went on to say that any Sunquest passenger travelling to either Puerto
Plata or Punta Cana, and staying in a Riu hotel, may change their hotel or
destination without penalty up to the end of January.
However, this would depend on availability and price, because this is the
high season for tourism in the Caribbean.
Wykes said test results were expected by today at the latest.
A spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada said it was aware of
the "virus that is manifesting itself in the Riu resorts (in the Dominican
Republic)."