Disease Outbreaks; Lives at Risk
Venezuela is facing a devastating health crisis whose extent its government continues to deny, Human Rights Watch said in a report published recently. As the crisis continues to spiral out of control, Human Rights Watch researchers traveled to the Colombian and Brazilian borders to assess the extent of the humanitarian crisis Venezuelans are fleeing. Human Rights Watch traveled with a team of public health and medical professionals from John Hopkins University’s Center for Humanitarian Health and its Center for Public Health and Human Rights, based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Venezuela’s public health system has collapsed, putting at risk the lives of countless Venezuelans,” said Shannon Doocy, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was part of the team that traveled to the Colombia-Venezuela border. “The combination of a failing health system and widespread food shortages has produced a humanitarian catastrophe, and it will only get worse if it’s not addressed urgently.” (Source: Human Rights Watch)
