Desperate Venezuelans seek medical attention in Colombia

World Today

Venezuela’s collapsing economy is destroying the country’s health care system. Sick Venezuelans are now forced to seek medical attention in neighboring Colombia.

CGTN’s Toby Muse filed this report from the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Everyday, thousands of Venezuelans cross into Colombia in search of a little food, a little money, and perhaps a new life. Increasingly, Venezuelans are travelling in to Colombia in search of medicines they desperately need.

The collapse of the Venezuelan economy has meant diseases that were once eradicated have crept back, like malaria and measles. Pregnant Venezuelan mothers have stayed in Colombia to work and receive healthcare services.

Alejandra Vera is director of the NGO Report and Act. She works with vulnerable women who are prostitutes. She hands out condoms, birth control and pregnancy tests.

“In Venezuela, the situation is very tough. There’s no way of getting contraception, condoms,” Vera said. “What does this all mean? Unwanted pregnancies, more sexually transmitted diseases.”