In 2013, members of the Guatemalan Assembly passed a law curbing the role of NGOs in providing medical care because of complaints about poor coverage and persistent graft. But no alternative system had been prepared to fill the void. The Health Ministry itself was in shambles. In 2014 and 2015, amid shortages of vaccines and medicines, there were renewed concerns about the outbreak of preventable illnesses such as measles, polio, and HPV. The vaccination rate, particularly among children, had fallen to levels not seen since the late war years of the 1990s.
