Sick Venezuelans Flee to Colombia as Refugee Crisis Worsens

 

In a hospital near Colombia’s border with Venezuela, migrants fill beds with the wounds of the nation they left behind.

An 18-year-old woman rubbed her stomach. She fled Venezuela with her new born daughter when the wounds she suffered while giving birth became infected.

A young man hurt in a motorcycle crash needed antibiotic¹ drugs for an infection.

A retiree with an enlarged foot arrived at the hospital after taking a 20-hour bus ride from Caracas. He went there because Venezuelan doctors told his family he needed the foot cut off — without antibiotics² or drugs to control pain during the operation.

"If you want to sign, sign. But we are not responsible for the life of your father," said Teresa Tobar. She was repeating what the doctors told her when they handed over the papers for her father's operation.

As Venezuela's economic crisis worsens, rising numbers of people are fleeing overseas. Independent groups say as many as 3 million to 4 million Venezuelans have left their homeland in recent years. Several hundred thousand reportedly left in 2017 alone.

Many of those are arriving in Colombia by foot and going to emergency rooms there with medical conditions that Venezuelan hospitals can no longer treat.

Health officials say Venezuelans made nearly 25,000 visits to Colombian emergency rooms last year, up from just 1,500 in 2015. At hospitals in border cities like Cucuta, patients lay side by side on stretchers, not much unlike the conditions they fled back home.

Officials predict the number of Venezuelans being treated at Colombian hospitals could double in 2018. They say the nation's public health system cannot help the large number of refugees.

Colombia cannot pay the cost of medical treatment for everyone arriving, said Julio Saenz, an adviser³ on migrant affairs to Colombia's Health Ministry⁴. “It’s “a very big concern," he added.

The Venezuelans are fleeing a national government that has been unable to stop rising costs. The high rate of inflation makes Venezuelan money nearly worthless and forces millions to go hungry. Migrants say the country’s collapsing⁵ health system is also forcing them to leave as things like antibiotics become hard to find or too pricey.

"I said to myself, 'I have nowhere else to go,'" noted⁶ Grecia Sabala, a 32-year-old mother. She went to Colombia for treatment for cancer because doctors in Venezuela were unable to offer any treatment.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has refused to accept humanitarian⁷ aid. Maduro denies there is a crisis in the country. He added that permitting international aid could lead to foreign intervention⁸.

Yet what little information officials have released shows Venezuelans are facing problems. The numbers of babies and mothers dying have risen sharply. And diseases like diphtheria, which officials thought was no longer a health threat, have reappeared.

Health officials are especially concerned about the spread of infectious diseases. Colombian doctors confirmed numerous cases of malaria⁹, tuberculosis¹⁰ and HIV among Venezuelan migrants last year.

"It's increasing the numbers of some illnesses that we had under control," Saenz said.

By law, Colombia's hospitals are required to treat any person, local or foreign, who shows up at an emergency room. But many Venezuelans are arriving with conditions like cancer, which requires costly¹¹, continuing care. Health centers in Colombia are not required to provide those treatments.

Hospitals offer “emergency room care, but beyond that there is no more we can do," said Juan Ramirez, director of Cucuta’s Erasmo Meoz Hospital.

Cucuta health officials estimate the cost of caring for Venezuelan migrants will be millions of dollars this year. Most of that money comes from local agencies, many of which are low on financial resources. Health officials say they need the help of the central government and international community.

Aside from providing health care, border cities are also seeing a rise in the sex trade and groups of men, women and children sleeping on the streets.

President Juan Manuel Santos is being pressured to declare an emergency, which would free up additional money.

The United States’ Agency for International Development recently sent its top official for Latin America to Cucuta. The aim of the fact-finding trip was to see how the U.S. can help Colombia with the growing crisis.

The Colombian health ministry is planning to send six mobile medical centers to the border area to treat minor¹² conditions.

A Colombia Red Cross medical station already operates at the foot of the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, where about 35,000 Venezuelans enter the country each day. The Red Cross station treats several hundred Venezuelans every week.

Michel Briceno, the young new mother who fled to Colombia after giving birth, said she knew she had to leave Venezuela. She said she made the decision after learning that several other women at the Venezuelan hospital had gotten sick and died.

When she saw the infection, she and her husband, their young son and newborn daughter took a small bus for a 12-hour ride into Colombia. She felt terrible pain during the ride.

Briceno said if she had stayed in Venezuela “I would have died.”

I'm Susan Shand. And I'm Dorothy Gundy.

Words in This Story

migrant – n. a person who goes from one area to another especially to find work

illness – n. a health problem, sickness

mobile – adj. able to move from one place to another

1 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

2 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

3 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

4 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

5 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

8 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

9 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

10 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

11 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

12 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。