On this website, we’ve tried to get information on the infectious disease situation in Venezuela through a variety of unofficial sources (see below) as the Venezuelan Health Ministry did not publish an official Epidemiological Bulletin in close to two years…until now.
The document that was published recently, provides data for the year 2016 and here is some of the key info on two important items–malaria and diphtheria:
Malaria
Much has been written about the malaria epidemic in Venezuela and the Health Ministry reports the following numbers: 240,613 total malaria cases in 2016 with 75 percent being due to Plasmodium vivax and 19 percent being the lethal variety, Plasmodium falciparum.
This compares to 136,402 total cases reported in all of 2015.
Diphtheria
The vaccine-preventable disease was reportedly eradicated in Venezuela decades ago, but saw a reemergence in 2016. The health ministry reported a cumulative total of 324 diphtheria cases in 2016. Of course, no cases were reported in 2015.
Read the complete bulletin HERE
Read other reports on Venezuela based on media reports, The Venezuelan Society of Public Health and interviews:
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