Publication Year
2019
Publication
The Lancet Global Health
Abstract
The health-care system collapse underway in Venezuela is a cause of utmost concern for its people and, increasingly, for the wider region. Declines in provision of basic services, such as childhood immunization, malaria control, water, sanitation, and nutritional support, have led to increasing morbidity and mortality rates from an array of preventable diseases, including malaria, measles, and diphtheria. Secondary and tertiary care have also been greatly affected, due to declining investment, out-migration of providers, and spiraling hyperinflation that has driven the country and its people into poverty. As is so often, and so tragically, the case, the most affected populations have been the most vulnerable: infants and children, their mothers, the poor (now the great majority of the populations), and indigenous people..
Citation
Page, K. R., Doocy, S., Ganteaume, F. R., Castro, J. S., Spiegel, P., & Beyrer, C. (2019). Venezuela’s public health crisis: a regional emergency. The Lancet.
