Due to the crisis, Venezuela is already exporting diphtheria, measles and malaria

The exodus of Venezuelans in search of better living conditions due to the economic and social crisis in their country is causing a public health problem that is pushing the receiving countries of the region: Colombia, Brazil and, in a to a lesser extent, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina. they record cases of malaria, measles and diphtheria caused by the migratory phenomenon.

The doctor specializing in epidemics and infections, Julio Castro, told the Televen open television channel that, although these ills are controlled in the countries mentioned above, alarms are ignited in the health systems, because they entail costs in the budget. .

"Measles, for example, is already starting to count cases among the indigenous population of the Brazilian state of Roraima.The figures indicate that between 30 and 35% of this population has symptoms" of this virus.

Castro added that Venezuela has 35% of measles cases at the continental level, with 4,000 people infected in the last 18 months.

The trend is repeated with diphtheria, a disease not controlled by the government of Nicolás Maduro and for which there are no official figures.

In this regard, he warned that the authorities had been blocking the national epidemiological bulletin for four years, preventing a demographic diagnosis of the diseases to combat them. To date, the available information comes directly from the physicians who take their own account of the cases treated.

The latest epidemiological bulletin officially released by the Venezuelan Ministry of Health is the last week of 2016 and its publication in February 2017 cost the post shortly thereafter to the then Minister of Health. Antonieta Caporale.

The document was unearthed after more than 15 months of silence about the country's epidemics and already contained data that shifted the scandal: infant mortality had increased by 30% compared to 2015, as 11 thousand 466 children had died. a year.

Another dramatic fact in the newsletter is that maternal mortality increased 66%, with 756 pregnant women dying during the same period.

This was the last news of its kind, which means that there is about 23 months of silence, while the humanitarian crisis, compounded by the shortage of food and medicine and made worse by inflation.

The epidemiological bulletin, published weekly, contained information on 72 notifiable diseases in the country.

The Director of the Department of Social Inclusion of the Organization of American States (OAS), Betilde Muñoz, said last June that the Venezuelan migration crisis posed a threat to the whole of the American continent. required a coordinated response from the countries of the region.

"This migration is a regional risk issue and a threat to the security, peace, tranquility and health of the entire hemisphere.If we do not take control and do not provide drugs and vaccines, we can have epidemiological epidemics, "said the representative of the OAS.

According to United Nations (UN) calculations, about 2.3 million Venezuelans have left their country because of the political, social and economic crisis and, among them, nearly one million have settled in Colombia.