Brazil, Colombia, and other Venezuelan border states are struggling to treat the variety of serious illnesses refugees from the socialist state are bringing with them, a report from the Wall Street Journal detailed Wednesday.
The thousands of Venezuelan refugees arriving daily in Brazil’s and Colombia’s border towns often carry serious diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, diphtheria, dengue, and tuberculosis that they are spreading to local populations, according to Colombian, Brazilian, and Venezuelan health officials who spoke with the Journal.
The diseases, previously believed to have been eradicated, are now cropping up in cities hundreds of miles away from the Venezuelan border as local authorities seek to move refugees from border towns into other parts of the country.
According to Brazil’s health ministry, the border city of Manaus reported four possible cases of measles in March this year. By October, the number had risen to nearly 1,000 cases, all of which originated from Venezuela. Twelve of those people have since died of the infection. The Pan American Health Organization reports that cases of measles are spreading well beyond border towns, with new cases reported in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina.
“Individuals who are forced to exit the country without proper medical care can transmit a million different things, or have the potential to trigger an outbreak that no one can predict but that will eventually occur,” Dr. Irene Bosch, a research scientist from U.S. National Institutes of Health told the paper. “It is a perfect storm condition for a catastrophic medical situation.”
Such reports provide underline the severity of Venezuela’s migration crisis, in which thousands of people are fleeing the country every day in dire poverty and often in need of humanitarian assistance. Such movement has caused considerable tension and xenophobic backlash in local communities, an issue the spread of disease is only likely to exacerbate. more here
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