New data from the Dominican Republic’s National Epidemiological Surveillance System (SINAVE), compiled through the 29th epidemiological week of 2026, paints a mixed portrait of the nation’s public health landscape. When comparing epidemiological trends across 2025 and 2026, the country has recorded notable victories in the control of long-standing public health threats, including malaria, cholera, and preventable maternal and infant mortality, but is confronting a troubling resurgence of several under-monitored emerging and re-emerging conditions.
The most striking public health success documented in the latest report is the 83% drop in malaria cases nationwide. From 673 confirmed infections in 2025, case counts fell to just 115 in 2026, with remaining concentrated outbreaks limited to the southern provinces of Azua and San Juan. Cholera control efforts have also delivered steady progress, alongside significant improvements in maternal and child health outcomes: maternal mortality fell by 27.7% year-over-year, dropping from 101 maternal deaths in 2025 to 73 in 2026. Infant mortality similarly decreased by 9.2%, falling from 1,093 deaths in 2025 to 992 in 2026, with neonatal mortality accounting for the largest share of remaining fatalities. Demographic breakdowns of 2026 maternal deaths show 53.4% of fatalities occurred among Dominican-born women, while 43.8% involved Haitian women residing in the country.
Against these gains, public health officials are now prioritizing response to a sharp surge in multiple infectious diseases. Leptospirosis has emerged as the fastest-growing public health event in the country, with confirmed cases jumping nearly 190% from 85 in 2025 to 253 in 2026. The northern coastal province of Puerto Plata recorded the highest incidence of the disease at 74 cases, followed by the capital district of Santo Domingo. Dengue, another vector-borne disease, also saw a 20% increase, rising from 173 confirmed cases in 2025 to 213 in 2026, though SINAVE officials noted the country remains within the safe threshold for endemic transmission of the virus.
Pertussis (whooping cough) has also made an unexpected comeback: after just one confirmed case was recorded in 2025, seven cases were confirmed in 2026. Tetanus saw a smaller uptick, with 16 reported cases and six associated deaths in 2026. For severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), a category that includes both COVID-19 and influenza, the number of suspected hospitalizations has declined, but the case fatality rate has jumped sharply from 0.7 deaths per 100 cases to 3.7 deaths per 100 cases.
The 2026 epidemiological map of the Dominican Republic highlights clear geographic disparities in disease burden: Puerto Plata leads nationwide in leptospirosis cases, Azua and San Juan hold the highest malaria rates, Santo Domingo reports the most dengue cases and infant deaths, and Santiago has the highest incidence of SARI and maternal mortality.
In a final synthesis of the 2026 data, public health leaders emphasized that while the Dominican Republic has made substantial, measurable progress in reducing preventable mortality from long-standing public health priorities, the resurgence of leptospirosis, pertussis, and other emerging threats creates an urgent need to strengthen three core areas of public health action: expanded and sustained epidemiological surveillance, broader uptake of routine immunization, and more robust environmental prevention measures to stop vector-borne and waterborne disease transmission.