For all that we have written about the terrible state of our public healthcare system, sometimes is difficult to convey into words how bad it is. But images can speak louder than words, and this report – made by Venezuelan photojournalist Betty Laura Zapata – for UK’s Channel 4 News is quite powerful. Zapata (who resides in…
On May 28th Venezuela celebrated the International Menstrual Hygiene Day. On that day, we embraced: …the opportunity to create awareness of the right of women and girls to hygienically manage their menstruation – in privacy, safety and with dignity – Because, good menstrual hygiene management (MHM) plays a key role in enabling women and girls to reach their…
Lost in the news whirlpool of open letters, diplomatic summits and military exercises, there’s the news that Nicolas Maduro has named a brand new Health Minister: PSUV Falcón State MP Henry Ventura. Until a few days ago, Ventura was the chairman of the National Assembly’s Health Committee. He admitted in a recent interview with State TV that at…
6:30 p.m. “I’m sorry, we can’t treat her here, we have no beds available” says the medical employee. Martha, María, José and Sula share nervous glances. They’re at the front door of Centro Medico Total, a private clinic. Their mother, “Mami” started having difficulty breathing in the afternoon, just after having a nasal feeding tube removed.…
I don’t want to cause panic, folks, but reading stories like the one about the nurse who contracted the ebola virus in Madrid doesn’t help quell collective nerves. Heck, even in Dallas they appear to have screwed up. These stories brought me back to a conversation I had the other day with a friend who owns…
Once, a long time ago, we were pioneers in erradicating malaria, but now the endemic disease is more rooted than ever in Venezuela. Yet even if we have addressed this theme several times before, a couple of very different yet completely related reports give us a clear prespective than this disease is here to stay. The first one comes…
(This is a rare double post on the blog. A few weeks ago, Audrey brought up the idea that we should write about abortion. After much prodding, I reluctantly agreed. Initially, I thought the topic was too painful and incendiary for us to reach any common ground. Since it cuts to the very essence of what it is…
Dr. Martín Carvallo, who heads the Hospital Universitario’s HIV department, doesn’t know what to tell his patients when they ask what they can do when they can’t get the anti-retrovirals they need. “What can I say? There’s nothing I can do, and there’s nothing they can do,” he says. Paint is peeling off the blue walls of the Infectious Diseases Unit in what…
Renowned Venezuelan doctor and scientist Jacinto Convit passed away today in Caracas. He was 100 years old. His life was full of great achievements, including the development of a vaccine for leprosy in the late 80s, after several decades of research. Because of it, he won the 1987 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and…
The return of malaria to Venezuela almost half century after the World Health Organization confirmed its full erradication is not new to this blog. In recent months the situation hasn’t improved much and it could even become a bigger public health problem as the disease is now approaching urban populations. The Guardian’s Virginia Lopez (who,…
The ongoing crisis of our health system is nothing new, but things are now taking one strong turn for the worse. This great report by the AP’s regional correspondent Frank Bajak resumes the terrible situation faced by both public hospitals and private clinics, and the living hell that many patients get through to obtain treatment.…
The working staff at Hospital Vargas (one of the oldest in Caracas) went through hell this weekend after two armed colectivos took its premises by force on two consecutive days. The irregular groups (one of them identified as a Tupamaros branch) demanded at gunpoint that the doctors treat several of their members, wounded by gunfire. What…
Since we reported about it back in June, the return of malaria (a disease that Venezuela had erradicated) has now reached a historical high. The latest official numbers from the Health Ministry show 56,291 cases of malaria have reported so far in 2013, a number unseen in the last 70 years. An NGO has hinted…
The board of the Enrique Tejera Hospital in Valencia will now formally allow relatives of patients to bring hammocks, so they can sleep inside its premises at night. Even if the hospital’s infrastructure is in deplorable conditions, some of its visitors prefer to stay the night there anyway. But their personal security isn’t guaranteed. As…
While the government is busy pressuring private clinics by enforcing price conrtrols on their services and forcing them to register, the situation in our public hospitals remains dire. Last week, the nutrition department of the José Gregorio Hernández Hospital in Caracas suspended all food services for its patients until further notice, justified by an alleged…
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