The World Health Organization reported that around 1.5 billion people require both preventive and curative intervention against tropical diseases unattended. In Venezuela no figures have been published since 2016
Author: Caroní mail
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines unattended tropical diseases (ETD) as “a group of various conditions caused by different pathogens (such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi and toxins), whose social, economic and health consequences They are devastating ».
These pathologies prevail, for the most part, in “impoverished communities in tropical areas.” In order to raise awareness about the more than one billion people who are affected by these diseases, on January 30 he declared World Day of tropical diseases unattended.
The WHO He reported that around 1.5 billion people require both preventive and curative intervention against unattended tropical diseases, they would also be related to environmental conditions.
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The perfect locations to spread these conditions are “the rural, conflict areas, of difficult access and whose circumstances are aggravated by climate change and where access to drinking water and sanitation services is scarce.” Likewise, the ETDs would affect the environments that lack quality health care.
“All these factors hinder their control in the field of public health,” said WHO.
Unattended tropical diseases are Buruli’s ulcer, Chagas disease, dengue and chikungunya, drachunculosis echinococosis, food transmission trematodiasis, sleep disease, leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, micetome, Chromoblastomycosis and other deep mycosis, Noma, oncocercosis, rabies, scabies and other ectoparasitosis, schistosomiasis, hemmintiasis transmitted by the ground, the poisoning by snake bite, tasiasis/cysticercosis, trachoma and pian.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has urged «governments, health workers, cooperation agencies, and community and civil organizations, which play an important role in collective efforts to eliminate and control these infections, to work in comprehensive health actions and focused on populations and different communities ».
Tropical diseases unattended in Venezuela
The Ministry of Popular Power for Health does not publish an epidemiological bulletin since 2016. Therefore, the incidence of these diseases in the country is unknown. In the last report of that year the incidence of dengue was 94.31 per 100 thousand inhabitants. The circulation of the four serotypes (dengue 1, dengue 2, dengue 3 and dengue 4) also prevailed.
By 2022, 11,409 dengue cases were reported in the country, with 18 deaths, the Santa Paula medical group reported.
With respect to Chikungunya, for week 52 of 2016 there was an incidence of 11.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. With a total of 3,471 cases.
On urban rabies, the highest rate was recorded in week 49 of the bulletin, the most affected were the populations of 5 to 6 years (4.16%) and from 7 to 9 years (3.94%) cases for each 100 thousand inhabitants of the group. Zulia was the state with more cases.
What does the State do?
According to PAHO reports, Venezuela “continues to advance in its efforts to eliminate tracoma,” this condition that causes blindness affects the indigenous communities of the Amazon basin.
By October 2024, Venezuela trained 16 health workers with the support of the PAHO and the Canadian government “for the completion of surveys that will allow estimating the prevalence of this disease.” Later, they would address communities from the municipalities ATURES, AUTIANA and MANAPIARE of the Amazonas state, to visit a total of “30 communities”, according to a report from the PAHO.
On the website of the Ministry of Popular Power for Health (MPPS), in the context of World Tropical Diseases Day, they published an article in which they assured that “in our country, the National Public Health System (SPNS) , attends these pathologies through the different health programs, such as the Amazon Center for Research and Control of Tropical Diseases (CAICET), the Dr. Jacinto Convit Biomedicine Institute, the Tropical Medicine Institute of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV ), among other entities that continue to enhance their abilities ».
Days before the World Day of Unattended Tropical Diseases, in Barinas, 208 students of the Dr. Ramón Reinoso Núñez Educational Unit were attended by the La Salud program, they were carried out “educational sessions” on viral challenges and the bullying They also offered vaccination, weighing, size measurement, deworming, and physical and nutritional evaluations.
For World LEPRA DAY, the medical staff of the General Integral Diagnostic Center Alfredo Franco, in Apure, dictated an educational talk to patients to “raise awareness among people about this chronic bacterial disease that affects the skin.”
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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