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Health Check: Crisis in Venezuela Leads to Rise in Deaths of Women and Babies

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Healthcheck

2017/06/14 GMT

Crisis in Venezuela Leads to Rise in Deaths of Women and Babies

BBC World Service - Health Check, Crisis in Venezuela Leads to Rise in Deaths of Women and Babies

Rising number of deaths and serious shortage of medicines in Venezuela

Impact on healthcare caused by crisis in Venezuela; Flu Jab buses in Chile; Amnesia on a beach

Sitting on top of the world’s largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela used to be one of the richest nations in Latin America. Today it is in turmoil and there’s been a sharp rise in infant mortality and the number of women dying in childbirth and pregnancy is up by 65%.  The BBC’s Vladimir Hernandez has just returned from Venezuela where he saw a man who couldn’t get hold of a lifesaving medicine – and a woman whose daughter died before she was able to get a diagnosis. 

It’s flu season in Chile and every year as many as six and a half thousand people are hospitalised with the virus – out of a population of 17 million.  Up to 500 people die from it.  Radio and TV ads try to persuade people to flu jabs – and special vans are taking vaccinations into the community. 

We all forget things – but one listener on holiday in Croatia tells Health Check how he literally couldn’t remember what he was doing on the beach after a swim. Luckily his memory came back. As Professor Adam Zeman from the University of Exeter explains, he suffered an episode of transient global amnesia, which can be caused by stress or cold water. 


(Photo:  Getty Images)

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