NewsWhore
02-09-2007, 03:10 PM
Matilde Vasquez, deputy minister in charge of nutrition at the Ministry of Public Health (SESPAS), has announced a new government initiative to reduce malnutrition in the country. The statement was made on occasion of recent release of figures from the World Food Program that show that malnutrition in the DR has consistently increased from 2000 to 2006, which includes two years into the present administration.
Vasquez said that funds for nutrition programs would be increased from RD$2 million to RD$400 million. The initiative includes supplying nutritional supplements (iron, calcium, folic acid) to 170,000 pregnant women and 500,000 children under the age of five.
Vasquez claims that the increasing number of births of Haitian children in Dominican hospitals are the reason for the high malnutrition rate.
Yesterday Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez attributed the increase in malnutrition to the Mejia government's mismanagement of the 2003 banking crisis, as reported in Diario Libre. Rojas also attributed the figures to the lack of iodized salt, which he said was left at 90% through a government program during the first PLD government (1996-2000), but was not followed up by its successor.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
Vasquez said that funds for nutrition programs would be increased from RD$2 million to RD$400 million. The initiative includes supplying nutritional supplements (iron, calcium, folic acid) to 170,000 pregnant women and 500,000 children under the age of five.
Vasquez claims that the increasing number of births of Haitian children in Dominican hospitals are the reason for the high malnutrition rate.
Yesterday Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez attributed the increase in malnutrition to the Mejia government's mismanagement of the 2003 banking crisis, as reported in Diario Libre. Rojas also attributed the figures to the lack of iodized salt, which he said was left at 90% through a government program during the first PLD government (1996-2000), but was not followed up by its successor.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)