October 21, 2007 (LPAC)--The Ecuadorian government expects to save the lives of 1,000 children a year, with the mass baby vaccination program it initiated on Oct. 16 against the rotavirus, the leading cause of severe diarrhea and vomiting in children worldwide. The vaccines will be provided free of charge, as another step in the government's drive to build up the physical and human infrastructure of the public health system to the point that it can provide universal free health care.

"This government is overcoming the fallacy of neo-liberalism, that all current expenditures are bad," President Rafael Correa said in launching the vaccination drive. The rotavirus vaccine program is going to be paid out of the government's current spending, because health, like education, is one of the "fundamental rights of human beings," and providing those services free, and in high quality, should be a matter of national pride, he said.

On Sept. 6th, President Correa had renewed the Health Emergency he had first declared in April throughout the country. As he explained when he made the April announcement, "life comes before debt," so the government will spend what is required. Under the emergency, 4,500 more doctors and nurses are being hired, 150 ambulances purchased, hospital and clinic equipment and infrastructure upgraded, the Army Corps of Engineers deployed to build new hospitals, consultation hours in hospitals and clinics doubled from four to eight hours a day, mobile medical brigades sent into poor areas where no service exists, etc.

On Oct. 20, Correa took yet another step, announcing the creation of a fund to cover medical attention for people facing life and death situations.