Sunday, August 14, 2016

SOCIALISM IN REAL TIME: Venezuela's Economic Turmoil Has Brought Malaria Back

As a computer technician from a big city, Mr. Balocha was ill-suited for the mines, his soft hands used to working keyboards, not the earth. But Venezuela’s economy collapsed on so many levels that inflation had obliterated his salary, along with his hopes of preserving a middle-class life. reports NYT.

With Venezuela’s economy in tatters, at least 70,000 people from all walks of life have been streaming into a mining region to hunt for gold in watery pits. It is a perfect breeding ground for the mosquitoes that spread malaria.

Then, with the disease in their blood, the miners return home to cities where there is often no medicine and little fumigation, and they have passed the disease on to tens of thousands more people and left entire towns desperate for help.

Venezuela was the first nation in the world to be certified by the World Health Organization for eradicating malaria in its most populated areas, beating the United States and other developed countries to that milestone in 1961.

In Ciudad Guayana, hundreds of people, all with symptoms of malaria, overflowed a clinic in May. (via NYT)
In the first six months of the year, malaria cases rose 72 percent, to a total of 125,000, according to the figures. The disease cut a wide path through the country, with cases present in more than half of its 23 states. And among the malaria strains present here is Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes the most fatal form of the disease.

1 comment:

  1. It's those darn greedy capitalists!! One bright note (maybe) is that except for some stupid executive order sanctions regarding Iranian petroleum etc, the U.S. is (seemingly) not pursuing a regime change or major blockade. So, unlike the Castros, the Venezuelans can't blame us. Of course they will anyway, along with the rest of the lefties.

    ReplyDelete