By: Elga Salvador

The maternity hospital, Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia, holds the record of the first birth of 2019 in the Dominican Republic for the sixth consecutive year. On the same day, the same hospital also holds another record: this is the third year in which the first baby was born to an adolescent mother [1,2]. This is no longer a surprise in a country where the percentage of pregnancy in adolescents has never been lower than 20% in the last 23 years [3].

By: Elga Salvador

“Por el machismo” (because of machismo) has been a constant theme in the focus groups, interviews, and training conducted by WI-HER throughout Latin America and the Caribbean aimed at identifying obstacles to the prevention of sexual transmission of Zika [1,2], under USAID’s Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Health Systems (ASSIST) Project.