Venezuela: Violence, human rights, and health-care realities

摘要

We read with concern the report by Ewan Robertson on how Venezuelan unrest increases pressure on health services.1 Disappointingly, this report represents a biased portrayal of the health-care and political situations in Venezuela. Venezuela's health-care debacle is not the result of 1 month protests. During the past 15 years, deplorable conditions of public hospitals have been repeatedly denounced: patients with cancer are denied radiotherapy due to faulty equipment, lack of electrocardiogram paper denies patients with myocardial infarction a time-sensitive diagnosis, aspirin is at times non-existent, and access to thrombolytics has become a dream. This list is unending.