Lack of state -of -the -art medicines, lack of insulin, syringes and reactive strips to measure blood sugar levels, make Venezuela the worst country to have diabetes today.
This has stated patients and members of the National Federation of Associations and Diabetes Units, by calling the Government to guarantee the satisfaction of the human right to health.
“I would ask the authorities to take into account this situation that is happening because if there is money for many things, there must also be for priority, which is health.And it is not only about diabetes, because there is also a shortage of many other medications to treat critical conditions, ”said the endocrinologist and member of Phenadiabetes, Elizabeth Gruber of Bustos.
According to the doctor, for the treatment of type 1 diabetes there is currently a great deficit of analog or new generation insulins.
The conventional ones, which are NPH and crystalline insulin are still achieved in state pharmacies, but returning from one treatment to another represents a real setback that negatively affects the patient, the specialist said.
In the case of type 2 diabetes patients (the most frequent), who unlike the former do not depend on insulin injections and can be treated with tablets, there are no longer in Venezuela in the inhibitors of the DPP4 enzyme, also lastgeneration.They are generally produced by the international pharmaceutical industry and have to be imported in a country without currencies.
viacrucis
Beyond the complaints of the doctor, the testimony of the affected themselves makes it clear that controlling diabetes in Venezuela is a matter of warriors, especially if you are insulin -dependent.This was revealed by Rafael Russián, who suffers from type 1 diabetes from 2 years of age, and today is 19.
“The situation with reactive strips is quite critical.Years ago you went to the pharmaceutical chains and you found a lot of strips at affordable prices, but now we are in need of traveling up to 20 pharmacies in one day, and submitting to one of your friends to accompany you, because when you get theStrips only sell two boxes of 25 units, and sometimes up to ten, when a type 1 diabetic needs to be measured up to five times in one day to stay controlled, ”he said.
Apart from how difficult it is to get this input, which does not occur in the country and must be imported, it also plays against the issue of price.
“I just arrived on a trip and my sister -in -law that is diabetic commissioned me to bring a box of reactive strips compatible with a specific team.Pay $ 68 for a package of 25 strips, ”said Dr. Gruber.
Those who have the necessary resources to supply the lack of this product abroad are still fortunate, since the same operation cannot be applied in the case of insulin, whose sale is only made with a medical record.
For these people whose lives depend on maintaining control over the level of glucose in their blood, underdaily caloric intake.
"Not having strips must reduce measurements and this affects our quality of life: apart from the fact that we have to eat less one is seen in a position of great stress constantly," Russián said.
“In the case where we have insulin but we have no strips for me, it is more serious, because it does not let me know what amount of insulin I must use, or how I must react to a abrupt decline of glycemia, which are the so -called hypoglycemia, the most statecritic that we can have diabetic patients, ”said Mileibys Nature,Also diabetes patient T1.
The business
In one of the most popular virtual markets in Venezuela, they offer some brands of reactive strips up to 3,000 Bs. Per box of 25 units, 1000% more than its value in pharmacies.
For this reason, the T1 diabetes patient Rafael Russián asked the state to regulate the sale of this product only patients with medical record, “to prevent unscrupulous people who have as the sole purpose of turning the need for some into a lucrativebusiness".