Por: Elías El Hage
Venezuela, with more than 30 million inhabitants, has been facing a socio-political and economic situation that has negatively affected social and health indicators.
The main problems are the lack of medicines and medical supplies, malnutrition, an inefficient public health service that is affected by frequent interruptions in the supply of services such as water and electricity.
It is estimated that between 2010 and 2016, the number of new cases of HIV infection increased by 24% and that by that date, there were already 120,000 infected people and only 71,210 were receiving antiretroviral therapy. I
According to the MPPS, in that same year, the mortality rate increased to 8.3 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Since 2017, there is no official data.
Since 2012, serious problems began to arise in the supply of antiretrovirals, and by 2018, the shortage of these drugs affected 84% of patients.
Since 2019, the country has incorporated therapeutic regimens based on dolutegravir. Unfortunately, the transition to these new regimens has progressed slowly and there is little availability of other alternative antiretroviral regimens.
There is great concern about the lack of reagents for diagnosis and monitoring, in addition to not having tests for diagnosis of opportunistic diseases and their treatment .
In Venezuela, the objectives to reach the 90 – 90 – 90 goals for the year 2020 have not been achieved.