SOCIALISM FAILED : Malaria Outbreak In Venezuela threatens to destroy an already impoverished nation

Amid widespread food shortages, civil and political turmoil, and a crippling economy experiencing some 480 percent inflation, Venezuela has an entirely new and deadly problem — malaria.

Tens of thousands of people across Venezuela are working in illegal mines tucked away in the nation’s jungles to provide subsistence for themselves and their families. So many have lost their jobs, with an unemployment rate reaching 8 percent this year, that mines are the only option for employment. In addition to payment, workers are contracting malaria that has long been dormant in these mines. After picking up the virus in the mines, workers return to their homes in the cities where the disease is spreading at an alarming rate.

In 1961, Venezuela was commended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for being the first nation to eradicate malaria in heavily populated areas. While the disease was eradicated in major urban areas, it has quietly been living in the jungles.

WHO notes the worldwide measures to defeat malaria including: mosquito nets, medical supplies, and other advances aimed at lowering the contraction rate of the virus. These measures have helped lower malaria rates by 60 percent in places where the disease is prevalent, reports The New York Times.