The president of the Dominican Medical Guild (CMD), Dr. Wilson Roa, said that after the rains that have fallen recently, the nation faces an outbreak of infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue, and leptospirosis, because of the onset of more mosquitoes, and flood waters containing rodent feces. Roa forecast an increase in persons of the most exposed population, those that live in rural areas and in heavily populated, low-income barrios, will be going to the public hospitals for treatment. He alerted that many would leave without anything since the hospitals are not equipped with the necessary medicines.
Roa noted that neither the health authorities nor the health administrators (the ARS, the local equivalent to HMOs), seem to be worried about this situation, and do not spend money trying to educate the population on how to avoid these diseases. He said that “public awareness campaigns need to be directed by the state, not by intermediaries or the private sector in order for them to go directly to the people.”
He insisted advances be made in the implementation of the nationwide primary care system, and he criticized the efforts of the ARSs to maintain the current second and third tier health care system since it is the one that pays the most.
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El Nacional
8 April 2019