Venezuela in grip of severe tropical disease outbreak

Venezuela is in the grip of one of the worst outbreaks of tropical diseases in decades, and the response by public health authorities has been slow and inefficient, two non-governmental groups reported Tuesday. In 2014, Venezuela had over 150,000 recorded cases of dengue, malaria, and Chikungunya, the report said. The country also had 1.2 million fever episodes without a precise diagnoses, according to the report by the Health Observatory and another group called We Defend the Epidemiology of Venezuelan Society.  The epidemic is one of the worst in 25 years, said former health minister Jose Felix Oletta, who was among the authors of the report. More…