Public health is entrusted to the Secretariat for Health, although a series of other agencies also provide primary health care services, such as the IMSS, IMSS-Solidaridad (rural sector), the ISSSTE,25 the DIF, the SEP-IEEPO, and the INI. The SSE has the main responsibility for controlling communicable and infectious diseases, offering primary health care services such as maternal and child health, and carrying out vaccination campaigns and other prevention initiatives. As suggested by the high infant mortality, a universal health quality indicator for the general population and services, there are serious problems with public health in Oaxaca. The dispersion of the population in small localities, or pueblos, the acute poverty, and limitations in the health care infrastructure work against public health protection and the prevention of communicable diseases.