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.
(To read the story on Venezuelan women seeking sterilizations as
crisis sours child-rearing, click http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-sterilizations-idUSKCN10E1NK)
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.
[to top of second column] |
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.
Diphtheria was once a major global cause of child death but is now
increasingly rare thanks to immunizations, and its return showed how
vulnerable the country is to health risks.
Reuters documented the case of a 9-year-old girl, Eliannys Vivas,
who died of diphtheria earlier this year after being misdiagnosed
with asthma, in part because there were no instruments to examine
her throat, and shuttled around several run-down hospitals.
(For a story on "Venezuelan girl's diphtheria death highlights
country's health crisis", click http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-health-idUSKBN15P1DA)
There were also 240,613 cases of malaria last year, up 76.4 percent
compared with 2015, with most cases of the mosquito-borne disease
reported in the rough-and-tumble Bolivar state.
Cases of Zika rose to 59,348 from 71 in 2015, reflecting the spread
of the mosquito-borne virus around Latin America last year. There
was no data for likely Zika-linked microcephaly, where babies are
born with small heads, although doctors say there have been at least
several dozen cases.
(To read the story on "Amid government silence, Venezuela's
microcephaly babies struggle", click http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-venezuela-idUSKBN12H1NY)
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Girish Gupta and Frances
Kerry)
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