El Siglo newspaper reports that public hospitals in the frontier provinces spend 50% of their resources on servicing Haitian patients. For humanitarian reasons, public hospitals located from Pedernales to Monte Cristi, along the frontier, offer emergency services to Haitians. El Siglo reports that most of the cases they see are births, tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria, injuries, malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory infections. The public hospitals have to finance the transportation of the sick Haitians back to Haiti or to regional hospitals within the DR. Minister of Public Health Juan Octavio Ceballos recognizes the problem, but said that the authorities do not have a solution.
