A first case of cholera has been detected in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas said Tuesday.
The patient is a 32-year-old Haitian-born man named Wilmont Lowel who is being treated in a hospital in the eastern town of Higuey, Rojas told reporters.
Dominican authorities had tightened border controls and stepped up health checks in an attempt to stop the disease from spreading from Haiti, where the death toll climbed past 1,000 on Tuesday.
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Higuey is located in the far eastern Dominican Republic, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) east of the capital Santo Domingo.
