At present, there is a shortage of 80% of reagents used in specialized tests such as thyroid hormones, prostate antigen or tumor markers for those who had cancer. The costs of routine prostate antigen testing to rule out prostate cancer in men aged 50 and above will increase from USD 1,182 to USD 5,902. Due to excessive costs, many Venezuelans would not go for preventative tests.

Ideally, every year Venezuelans need to have tests that costs between USD 1,182 and USD 2,939. The coagulation tests that must be performed for any patient undergoing surgery are not free in hospitals and in the private sector the minimum cost is USD 2,939. The union of bioanalysts stated that due to rising costs rigorous analysis required for identifying contagion of diseases in blood supplied for transfusions are neglected.

Analysis of samples of blood transfusions done in the last year reflected that the number of samples contaminated with HIV, Chagas, hepatitis or syphilis remains the same. The Municipal Bank of Blood of the Capital District, which is responsible for carrying out tests of blood samples coming from various hospitals has a limited supply of reagents. In these hospitals, they are making use of these reagents such that they are being used only for the important cases, in the intention that reagents will last longer.

El-nacional

The Venezuelan Society of Public Health and the Network Defend National Epidemiology warned about the proliferation of reports of malaria or malaria in the country in recent weeks. They pointed out that provisional figures from official sources – not disclosed – reveal that up to July 10 in the state of Bolívar the number of new cases, accumulated to 117,209.

As of March 4, the cases were 36,877, so in 18 weeks the increase of 217.8% was observed. For more than three months, the Ministry of Health has not made the epidemiological information public, including data on malaria. This has not prevented doctors from reporting a rebound in diagnoses: only in the Ruiz and Páez hospital in Ciudad Bolívar, there were 17 pregnant women suffering from the disease.

The organizations stated that there are no precise figures on the number of deaths due to malaria at the national level, but in Bolívar there were 56 reported deaths due to malaria (until July 10), approximately 30% more than last year in the same period. Preliminary calculations of these associations indicate that the number of indigenous cases accumulated in Bolívar during 2017 will be between 200,000 and 250,000, which would mean an increase between 22,000 and 72,000 cases when compared with 2016. In the rest of the country, they project that the number of new cases in 2017 will be between 100,000 and 150,000.

El-nacional

The Venezuelan Society of Childhood and Pediatrics (SVPP) revealed the statistics of vaccine deficits in the country. Infants in Venezuela have not received pneumococcal vaccine in the last two years and chicken pox vaccine from the last three years. Only 50% of diphtheria vaccines were available in the Bolivar state when the minimum required is 90%.

Furthermore, there is dearth for yellow fever and BCG vaccine. Venezuela is in deplorable condition in relation to preventive health and urges the authorities to update the stock of vaccines in quantity, quality and regularity. The authorities also requested the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to ensure vigilance on the issue. There is lack of supply of pentavalent vaccines, rotavirus and diphtheria toxoid at national level and there is a need to update the immunization scheme for the inclusion of varicella and human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines.

For the survey 23 hospitals in the capital of each state, university hospitals, 371 public and private hospitals, 92 hospitals Type II, Type III, Type IV (large hospitals) were considered. Around 97% of the country’s public health laboratories had shortage of reagents to perform the medical tests. This implies that patients were forced to go private laboratories to perform their medical tests.

Out of pocket pay decreased from 81% in 2016 to 75% in 2017. Around 64% of the pediatric wards in the hospitals had shortage of milk formulas while the same percentage of kitchens of public hospitals were not operational because of no food supplies.

The survey also revealed that 89% of X-ray equipment is either non-operational or intermittent, 71% of hospitals do not have working ultrasound equipment and 94% of CT scans are not functional.

On the contrary, private sector hospitals have 100% of beds and operating rooms in working condition. The private sector treats 55% of Venezuelans. The country has been experiencing medicine shortage for over two years. Physicians and representatives of the public health sector have repeatedly condemned the infrastructure conditions of hospitals, the lack of medicines, as well as the shortage of medical supplies.