Venezuelan crisis threatens the epidemic of diseases across the continent – experts | Global development

Experts warned of an epidemic of diseases such as malaria and dengue on an unprecedented scale in Latin America following the collapse of the health system in Venezuela.

The progress of the last 18 years in public health at the continental level could be canceled if Venezuela does not accept help to control the spread of malaria, zika, dengue epidemics and other diseases that afflict its population, experts warned in a report published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Venezuela was once a regional leader in malaria control, but the health system collapsed, leading to the mbadive departure of qualified doctors, according to the report, creating a public emergency "of hemispheric interest".

"These diseases have already spread to neighboring Brazil and Colombia and, with the increase in air travel and human migration, most of the region of Latin America and the Caribbean (as well as some American cities hosting the Venezuelan diaspora, including Miami and Houston) are at increased risk for the re-emergence of the disease, "says the newspaper.

The current situation in Venezuela can be attributed to a revolution that went terribly wrong.

When Hugo Chávez, a former army officer, was elected president in 1998, he inherited a middle-income country plagued by deep inequalities. Chávez had led an abortive coup attempt in 1992 and, after being imposed on power, he set himself the goal of transforming society. As part of its Bolivarian revolution, financed with the help of large oil profits, Chávez has carried out many social reforms. He also bypbaded Parliament with a new constitution in 1999.

The muzzling of parliamentary democracy – and the spread of corruption and mismanagement in state-run businesses – intensified after 2010 due to falling oil prices. Chávez's "economic war" against shortages has led to hyperinflation and the collapse of the private sector. The implosion of the economy between 2013 and 2017 was worse than that of the United States during the Great Depression.

In an attempt to stabilize the economy and control the prices of basic necessities, Chávez has put in place a strict control of foreign exchange operations, but this mechanism has quickly become a tool of corruption.

When Chávez died of cancer, his foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro, took the place that allowed him to intensify the attitude of his mentor to react to the economic spiral by concentrating power, governing by decree and applying political repression.

Photography: HANDOUT / X80001

The lead author, Dr. Martin Llewellyn, based at the University of Glasgow, called for global action. "The re-emergence of diseases such as malaria in Venezuela has created an unprecedented epidemic, not only in the country, but throughout the region," he said.

"On the basis of the data we have collected, we urge national, regional and global authorities to take immediate steps to address this escalating epidemic and prevent its expansion beyond Venezuelan borders."

He added that the figures were probably underestimated because the Venezuelan government had closed the institution responsible for collecting data for the World Health Organization.

"The Venezuelan clinicians involved in this study have also been threatened with jail, while laboratories have been looted by militia, hard drives removed from computers, microscopes and other broken medical equipment," he said. he declares.

Malaria cases, in a country certified as having eradicated the disease in 1961, increased by 359% between 2010 and 2015, from 29,736 to 136,402. They climbed 71% from 2016-2017 to 411,586, because of the decrease in mosquito control and the shortage of antimalarial drugs.

The epidemic has been intensified by the rise of illegal mining activities in the jungle near the southern border with Brazil, where the disease's reservoirs have survived despite its official elimination nationwide.

Venezuelans have flocked to the region in recent years to dig and search for gold in the wild mines, as the economy collapsed and hyperinflation eroded the wages of professionals and traders. workers.

The stagnant waters of pits and unhealthy camps provided an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes and malaria was soon endemic in many mines. Some miners and their families have endured dozens of episodes of the disease.

A woman working near the town of Tumeremo said her four-year-old son had already had 13 malaria attacks. After the last appointment, the doctors warned: "You have to choose – your daughter or mine". She moved to a different pit, but the family can not afford to leave.

The transitional nature of the mining work means that the region's problems have gradually affected large areas of the country, with infected workers having taken the disease with their gold, reintroducing malaria to areas where it had been eradicated.

"I have never been to the mines," said David Guevara, a 39-year-old constructor queuing for malaria treatment in the industrial port of Ciudad Guyana, 200 km from the nearest mining camps.

This is his second episode of the disease. "There are no controls [on malaria] now, he says. "And it's the kids who pay for it."

Before 2015, malaria was rare in the city, but now the government clinic where it uses medical badistance is still busy.

"It's an epidemic here now. It's a lie to go to the mines to get it, "said Marina Gutierrez, a 25-year-old woman who had eight malaria cases in the last year and was at the clinic asking for help to his daughter. "She had just finished her treatment two weeks ago. She got rid of it and then came back. "

Geraldine Flores attributes a severe case of malaria to the premature birth of her son. She gave birth with Yelbi Josue after catching the disease when she was seven months pregnant and working in the mines.

According to the review, Chagas disease, one of the leading causes of heart failure in Latin America, could be resurging. Dengue fever more than quintupled between 2010 and 2016. Six more and more important epidemics were recorded between 2007 and 2016, compared to four in the previous 16 years.

The epidemics of chikungunya and zika have epidemic potential, say the authors. An estimated 2 million suspected cases of chikungunya in 2014, more than 12 times the official estimate.

"We call on the members of the Organization of American States and other international political bodies to put more pressure on the Venezuelan government to accept the humanitarian aid offered by the international community so that to strengthen the health system in crisis.

"Without such efforts, progress in public health over the last 18 years could be quickly reversed," Llewellyn said.