Venezuelans are fleeing to Brazil for medical care
31-Dec-16, The Washington Post
As throngs of Venezuelans trek to Brazil in search of food and medicine, hospitals along Brazil’s sparsely populated northern border are struggling to pick up the pieces of Venezuela’s failing health-care system.
%20Marina%20Lopes_The%20Washington%20Post.jpg "Venezuelans are fleeing to Brazil for medical care (c) Marina Lopes The Washington Post")
Image: Marina Lopes / The Washington Post
A spiraling economic crisis and hyperinflation have cleaned Venezuelan hospitals of needles, bandages and medicine. Desperate for care and often undocumented, patients are overwhelming Brazilian emergency rooms as they turn up by the thousands.
“Demand is growing faster than I can manage. Every month the number of patients grows exponentially. How can I plan for that?” said Marcilene Moura, the 45-year-old director of the general hospital in the Brazilian border state of Roraima. "What happens if this continues? I’m going to run out of supplies by the middle of the year.”