Immunizations make a difference

One of the consequences of Venezuela’s economic ruin is infectious diseases are reaching epidemic proportions and spreading to neighboring Latin American countries.

Venezuela, a country of 30 million people, sits on large oil reserves but when global crude prices plunged, its economy was clobbered and inflation skyrocketed. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted an inflation rate of 2,350 percent for 2018.

The breakdown of Venezuela’s health system has turned what was once Latin America’s richest nation into an incubator for malaria, yellow fever, diphtheria, dengue and tuberculosis,...