The "bridge pharmacies", another face of need on the Venezuelan border – 02/09/2019

Giovanni Plaza has fled to Colombia for beat the HIV that killed him in Venezuela. He was lucky and gave him the drugs, but the need compelled his compatriots to buy them from informal vendors on the bridge that connects the two countries.

And these remedies can be expired, damaged or placebos.

Anyway, scarcity and hyperinflation are pushing for an option at hand Even a drug at a suspicious price promoted by a stranger on the international bridge Simón Bolívar.

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"I was practically dying in Venezuela for not having a good diet and not having drugs, antiretrovirals ", says Giovanni, who contracted the virus 5 years ago.

In December, he entered the Colombian town of Cucuta in the hope of finding the drugs that would put him in check, aggravated after the get a malaria that they could not attend in your country.

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Giovanni was 24 years old and left his family, including his 6 year old son, on the island of Margarita, the Caribbean holiday resort where he made a living as a merchant.

An American organization serving thousands of migrants in Cucuta (who are fleeing the worst crisis in Venezuela's modern history) provided free treatment.

"Thank God I'm standing here"said.

To survive, he asks for money in the streets of Cucuta and feels "a lot of sadness and anger" for his compatriots who must seek remedies in the "pharmacies" of the street.

The drug shortage in Venezuela is about 85%. Thousands of chronically ill patients struggle to access treatment, say NGOs and critical humanitarian groups a government reluctant to recognize a humanitarian crisis.

On Simón Bolívar's old bridge, a woman with a red cap sells 30 tablets of acetaminophen (badgesics) at about 60 cents; the 20 tablets cost about $ 3.8 in all pharmacies in Bogotá.

José Álvarez, a Venezuelan man based in Cúcuta two months ago, is very close to him. He has fewer drugs to sell in his sample than jobs in his hometown of Valencia, northern Venezuela.

The 39-year-old was a professional diver, a graphic designer, a personal defense instructor and a guard; She markets acetaminophen, ibuprofen and badual potentiators that she buys from wholesalers.

"That's what is sold now and with greater ease," says José, who has been involved in this activity near a bridge crossed by about 35,000 people a day.

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The main buyers come from Venezuela: "There are many people in need who they gave birth buy a drug, "he says.

One of them is María Acevedo: mother of 3 children, housewife, she is 26 years old and frequently travels the 70 kilometers that separate Táchira de Cúcuta. buy basic products.

"There you can not get pharmacies, and if you get the cost is higher," he says.

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But the cure can result more expensive than the disease.

False or adulterated medicines can cause heart attacks, liver damage, kidney failure, pulmonary embolism and even death, according to the National Drug and Food Monitoring Institute of Colombia.

"There are mafias who are dedicated to falsifying drugs"Alejandro Gaviria, former Minister of Health of Colombia." Many people arrive and there is no quality control. "

The customs and tax police dismantled gangs dedicated to this traffic, according to an anonymous source, a source of this Cúcuta institution.

The former head of Gaviria says that HIV-positive patients or those with cancer will hardly get the remedies they need on the street: "This is not the complete diet, it will not be effective. "

But Venezuelans continue with few options in the face of shortages. One of them is the humanitarian aid that arrived in Cucuta this Thursday from the United States, but is blocked by Nicolás Maduro's regime.

The Bolivarian leader warned that he would prevent the pbadage of food and medicine, saying that the humanitarian emergency did not exist. And he thinks it would be the first step of a US military intervention.

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"Send the humanitarian aid that all Venezuelans need," said Giovanni Plaza, diagnosing HIV by hand. "Please, receive the humanitarian aid you give us."

Source: AFP.