The Ministry of Public Health is enacting an emergency polio prevention plan. The Panamerican Health Organization had certified that polio had been eradicated from the DR in 1994 and 1995. This fall, seven cases of polio have been confirmed in the mountain town of Constanza by the Center for Disease Control of Atlanta (USA). Another five others are suspect of having caught the virus. The polio outbreak is attributed to negligence of the public health authorities in following up with routine vaccination programs. The Ministry of Public Health put into place emergency vaccination programs in Constanza, primarily reaching out to children under five. Similar massive vaccination programs will be carried out in La Vega, Puerto Plata, Santiago and Bonao. Socorro Gross of the Pan American Health Organization said that the DR has 500,000 vaccines in stock, of which 300,000 arrived this week once the situation was made known. The appearance of the sickness was first reported in the El Siglo newspaper. "I think it is inconceivable that today we are talking about polio in the DR," said Celso Marranzini, president of the National Council of Businessmen, and himself a victim of polio. Marranzini said that no disease that can be prevented by a vaccine should affect the local population.
