The Venezuelan government stopped publishing medical statistics in 2010.
[6]
In 2014 when Venezuela's economy was facing difficulties, Venezuela's medical atmosphere deteriorated. The Bolivarian government did not supply enough dollars for medical supplies among healthcare providers; with doctors saying that 9 of 10 of large hospitals had only 7% of required supplies with private doctors reporting many patients that are "impossible" to count are dying from easily treated illnesses due to the "downward sliding economy" in 2014.
[6] Due to such complications, many Venezuelans died avoidable deaths with medical professionals having to use limited resources to use methods that were replaced decades ago.
[4] In February 2014, doctors at
University of Caracas Medical Hospital stopped performing surgeries due to the lack of supplies, even though nearly 3,000 people require surgery.
[7]
In March 2014, the executive director of the Venezuelan Association of Hospitals and Clinics explained how in less than a month, shortages of 53 medical products rose to 109 products and explained how the
CADIVI system is to blame since 86% of supplies are imported
[8] with private sector hospitals claiming they owe suppliers billions of dollars in order to pay for debts.
[9]
In August 2014, Venezuela was the only country in Latin America where the incidence of malaria was increasing, allegedly due to illegal mining and in 2013, Venezuela registered the highest number of cases of malaria in the past 50 years, with 300 of 100,000 Venezuelans being infected with the disease. Medical shortages in the country also hampered the treatment of Venezuelans.
[10] Shortages of
antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV/AIDS affected about 50,000 Venezuelans, potentially causing thousands of Venezuelans with HIV to develop AIDS.
[11] Venezuelans also stated that due to shortages of medicines, it was hard to find
acetaminophen to help alleviate the newly introduced
chikungunya virus, a potentially lethal mosquito-borne disease.
[12] In September 2014, Health Minister Nancy Pérez admitted that there were 45,745 cases of dengue fever.
[13] There were also contested estimates involving the number of Venezuelans infected with chikungunya. In September 2014, the Venezuelan government stated that only 400 Venezuelans were infected with chikungunya
[13] while the
Central University of Venezuela stated that there could be between 65,000 and 117,000 Venezuelans infected.
[14] In August 2015 independent health monitors said that there were more than two million people infected with chikungunya while the government said there were 36,000 cases.
[15] In October 2014, President Maduro announced a plan to create the University of Science and Health and called for a meeting of
ALBA in order to discuss the combat against the
Ebola virus disease due to the
Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa.
[16]
In early 2015, only 35% of hospital beds were available and 50% of operating rooms could not function due to the lack of resources.
[4][5] In March 2015, a Venezuelan NGO, Red de Medicos por la Salud, reported that there was a 68% shortage of surgical supplies and a 70% shortage of medicines in Venezuelan pharmacies.
[5] In May 2015, the Venezuelan Medical Federation said that 15,000 doctors had left the public health care system because of shortages of drugs and equipment and poor pay. In August 2015
Human Rights Watch said “We have rarely seen access to essential medicines deteriorate as quickly as it has in Venezuela except in war zones.”
[15]
By the end of 2015, the Bolivarian government reported that of all Venezuelans visiting public hospitals in the year, one-of-three patients died.
[17]
In April 2017 Venezuela’s health ministry reported that maternal mortality jumped by 65% in 2016 and that the number of infant deaths rose by 30%.
[18] It also said that the number of cases of malaria was up by 76%.
[19] The ministry had not reported health data in two years. Venezuela is suffering from acute shortages of food and medicines.
to think they'd even try to get into a real fight.
