Azua.–The Minister of Health, Víctor Atallah, conducted a supervision tour of the Provincial Health Directorates (DPS) of Azua and Peravia, where he evaluated the main health indicators of both provinces, highlighting the progress made in the control of the malaria and delivered 50 permanent appointments to collaborators in the health system, as part of the thousand that have been made at the national level. This reaffirms the Government's commitment to strengthening the public network and the job stability of personnel.

During the visit to the Provincial Health Directorate of Azua, the minister learned about the results of the malaria prevention and control strategy, which shows a sustained reduction in the transmission of the disease in the province. Here he valued these advances and urged the provincial team to maintain efforts to achieve the national goal of malaria elimination.

According to a presentation made by the DPS, in the province of Azua between epidemiological weeks 1 and 28 of this year, 65 cases of malaria were recorded, compared to 369 cases reported in the same period of 2025, which represents a decrease of 82%.

These results respond to the strengthening of epidemiological surveillance, active case search, timely diagnosis and focused vector control interventions.

During this period, 22,785 diagnostic tests were performed. The system has a network of 64 establishments with capacity for malaria diagnosis and treatment, in addition to a team made up of 53 collaborators dedicated exclusively to surveillance, prevention and response to this disease.

Subsequently, Atallah moved to the Peravia Provincial Health Directorate, where he held a meeting with the collaborators and learned about the results obtained by the institution during the first semester of the year.

The provincial director, Dr. Addy Sánchez, reported that the DPS impacted 30,694 people through educational sessions, epidemiological surveillance actions and community activities.

Likewise, he highlighted the implementation of the Sinave platform to strengthen disease notification and improve epidemiological surveillance in the province.

Sánchez explained that the indicators show a significant improvement in the opportunity for notification, going from 80% in 2025 to 98% in 2026, while late reporting was reduced from 16.5% to 1.7%, to reflect the strengthening of the epidemiological surveillance system.

According to the report presented, the results achieved show that the entity has consolidated close preventive and comprehensive management, bringing services, education and health protection to the three municipalities of the province. Each intervention represents more informed communities, identified risks, opportunities and a population with greater opportunities to live in a healthy environment.

During the meetings with the staff, the minister highlighted the commitment of the teams from both provinces and reiterated that one of the priorities of his administration is to maintain a permanent presence in the territory. "The work that you do has been very praiseworthy and I am very satisfied with the results. I want to continue touring each DPS and Health areas, to know them, listen to them and make them feel that they have our support as a commitment to strengthen management and continue creating better conditions for those who work every day for the health of the Dominican people.

As part of the event, the head of Health gave 50 permanent appointments to 32 collaborators from the province of Azua and 18 from Peravia who for approximately four years worked under the contract or day labor modality, including workers hired during the COVID-19 pandemic, who from now on will have job stability, access to social security, health insurance and other benefits established by current legislation.

During both visits, the minister toured the departments of Epidemiology, Environmental Health, Habilitation, Human Resources, Administration and other technical areas, where he listened to the concerns of the staff and followed up on the identified improvement opportunities.

The sessions were accompanied by the provincial directors Joel Deschamps, from Azua, and Addy Sánchez, from Peravia, as well as the vice minister of the Provincial Health Directorates, Luis Nelson Rosario Socías.