Via Reuters: Infant mortality and malaria soar in Venezuela, according to government data. Excerpt and then a comment:
Venezuela's infant mortality rose 30 percent last year, maternal mortality shot up 65 percent and cases of malaria jumped 76 percent, according to government data, sharp increases reflecting how the country's deep economic crisis has hammered at citizens' health.
The statistics, issued on the ministry's website after nearly two years of data silence from President Nicolas Maduro's leftist government, also showed a jump in illnesses such as diphtheria and Zika. It was not immediately clear when the ministry posted the data, although local media reported on the statistics on Tuesday.
Recession and currency controls in the oil-exporting South American nation have slashed both local production and imports of foreign goods, and Venezuelans are facing shortages of everything from rice to vaccines. The opposition has organized weeks of protests against Maduro, accusing him of dictatorial rule and calling for elections.
In the health sector, doctors have emigrated in droves and patients have to settle for second-rate treatment or none at all. A leading pharmaceutical association has said roughly 85 percent of medicines are running short. Venezuelans often barter medicine, post pleas on social media, travel to neighboring countries if they can afford it, or line up for hours at pharmacies.
The Health Ministry had stopped releasing figures after July 2015, amid a wider data blackout. It was not clear why it published this latest batch of data.
Its statistics for 2016 showed infant mortality, or death of children aged 0-1, climbed 30.12 percent to 11,466 cases last year. The report cited neonatal sepsis, pneumonia, respiratory distress syndrome, and prematurity as the main causes.
Hospitals often lack basic equipment like incubators, and pregnant women are struggling to eat well, including taking folic acid, factors that can affect a baby's health. ... Maternal mortality, or death while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of a pregnancy, was also up, rising 65.79 percent to 756 deaths, the report said.
The Health Ministry did not respond to a request for further information. Maduro's government says a coup-mongering elite is hoarding medicines to stoke unrest.
'TURMOIL'
While Venezuelans are acutely aware of the country's health issues, the ministry's statistics bulletin shocked some in the medical community.
"The striking part is turmoil in almost all the categories that this bulletin addresses, with particularly significant increases in the infant and maternal health categories," said Dr. Julio Castro, an infectious disease specialist and an outspoken critic of the government's health policies.
Doctors say the health bulletins, meant to be released weekly, should be published in a timely fashion to alert medical practitioners to national trends and threats.
Venezuela, for instance, had controlled diphtheria, a bacterial infection that is fatal in 5 to 10 percent of cases, in the 1990s. Doctors last year sounded the alarm that it had returned, but the government initially said there were no proven cases and admonished those seeking to spread "panic."
The data now shows diphtheria affected 324 people - up from no cases the previous year.
I've got a copy of the PDF, and will go through it later today. It is strange that such a bulletin (covering week 52 of 2016, plus the whole year) should be published after such a long blackout...and with no suggestion about what's been going on since January 1.
