The confirmed deaths of 19 children under the age of seven due to diphtheria during the first four months of the year points to the breakdown of the governmental vaccination program under Public Health Minister Rafael Soldevila. Diphtheria is a completely preventable disease with aid of a low-cost vaccination. Hospitals nationwide nevertheless say that 35 cases have been reported. Dr. Manuel Tejada Beato and Zacarias Garip of the Public Health Ministry announced they would begin an emergency vaccination and education campaign, and are urging parents to take their children to the vaccination centers for the shots.
Public Health Minister Soldevila has been openly criticized for dedicating much of his time to promoting his candidacy within the PRD party and, when that failed, to the re-election campaign of President Hipolito Mejia. His detractors say that while the minister was engaged in his political activities, the public health system that serves low income Dominicans has suffered from a collapse of its services.