2023-05-03 23:26:58
By Dr. Carmen Mantellini
Since 2018, the migration of Venezuelans to other Latin American countries has become a problem for the receiving countries, becoming an agenda item not only for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), but for all organizations that work in the care and refuge of migrants. Since then, Venezuelan migration is the second in the world following that of Syria.
By December 2022, PAHO reported that there were 7.13 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants with an impact on the health systems of the countries that host them.
With a view to understanding the characteristics of this population, numerous studies have been carried out in relation to its living conditions and needs, drawing particular attention to matters related to the sexual and reproductive health of migrant girls, adolescents, and women.
According to various studies carried out in different reception centers and populations of Venezuelans in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Cali, Chiapas, among others, published in the PAHO Bulletin in March of this year, it has been possible to verify that Venezuelan migrant women have little or no sexual or reproductive education, without access to health services in their country of origin, which added to the lack of information regarding the Health Systems of the host country, delays not only the diagnosis and with it the opportune treatment, but also who tend to pay for private health services, which additionally affects their already precarious economic situation.
As concrete data, in a study of more than 400 migrants in transit in the state of Chiapas in Mexico, it was possible to identify that the average age was 31 years, 20.6% of the migrants in that town were Venezuelans, of whom 25.26% had a herpes simplex type 2 infection and 7.37% had an active syphilis infection that included pregnant women. This fact is repeated in other migrant reception and transit centers throughout the region.
The situation of migrants reflects the situation of the Venezuelan population, so we must continue to reinforce not only education in relation to prevention, but also invite everyone to take samples to determine the presence of these infections for timely treatment .
To learn more regarding this topic, visit my social networks @Dramantellini.
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