SPIRALLING rates of malaria in crisis-hit Venezuela "could soon become uncontrollable", public health experts from Glasgow have warned.

In the first major analysis of how the country's political and economic collapse is impacting on health, the Glasgow University researchers warn that Venezuela faces "an epidemic of unprecedented proportions” due to re-emergence of many deadly diseases.

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Incidence of insect-spread infections including malaria, Chagas disease, dengue virus, and Zika virus are rocketing and putting public health in the wider Latin American region at risk, according findings published today in the journal, Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The study found a 359 per cent increase in malaria cases between 2010 and 2015, followed by a further 71% increase between2016 and 2017, taking total incidence to 411,586.

A decline in mosquito-control activities and shortages in medication were blamed, and it is believed that Venezuela is experiencing the fasted growth in malaria cases anywhere in the world.

Chagas disease - one of the leading causes of heart failure in Latin America - also appears to be on the rise, while incidence of dengue virus - which causes the potentially fatal dengue fever - is up more than five-fold.

There were also six increasingly large epidemics recorded nationally between 2007 and 2016, compared with four in the previous 16 years.

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Outbreaks of the chikungunya and Zika viruses - both spread by mosquitoes - are increasingly occurring with epidemic potential. Pregnant women are particularly at risk from Zika as the virus can cause birth defects in the unborn baby.

It comes amid a collapse of Venezuela's healthcare system and the dramatic decline in public health programmes and disease surveillance.

Lead author Dr Martin Llewellyn said: “The re-emergence of diseases such as malaria in Venezuela has set in place an epidemic of unprecedented proportions, not only in the country but across the whole region.

"Based on the data we have collected we would urge national, regional and global authorities to take immediate action to address these worsening epidemics and prevent their expansion beyond Venezuelan borders.”

Dr Llewellyn, who led the research with Venezuelan, Colombian, Brazilian, and Ecuadorian colleagues, added that the figures obtained for the Lancet study were probably only the tip of the iceberg.

He said: “The continued upsurge in malaria could soon become uncontrollable. The stark reality is that in the absence of surveillance, diagnostic, and preventive measures, these figures most likely represent an underestimate of the true situation.

“Data is limited due to the ongoing economic and political crisis in Venezuela, however, using the information available we have been able to provide a comprehensive overview of the growing epidemics of major diseases such as malaria, Chagas disease, Leishmaniasis, Zika and dengue and their ongoing spillover into neighbouring countries.

“Tragically, Venezuelan government institutions may now be actively suppressing public health data in Venezuela.

"In June 2018, the Venezuelan Center for Classification of Diseases [in charge of providing the World Health Organisation with updated morbidity and mortality indicators] was eliminated by the government after 63 years of uninterrupted activity.

"Venezuelan clinicians involved in this study have also been threatened with jail, while laboratories have been robbed by militias, hard drives removed from computers, microscopes and other medical equipment smashed.”

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The crisis began around 2010, as Hugo Chavez's long presidency drew to a close amid a global collapse in oil prices which the administration had relied on to fund popular social programmes such as free medical clinics for the poor, housing subsidies and price controls.

Following Chavez's death in 2013, the country's problems escalated as a result of low oil prices and a drop in oil production in Venezuela.

Under President Nicolás Maduro, there have been chronic shortages of food and medicine, including shortages of milk, meat, chicken, coffee, rice, oil, butter, flour and even basic necessities like toilet paper.

Many Venezuelans have resorted to scavenging for food in bins and there have been reports of hospitals overwhelmed by children suffering from malnutrition.

Unemployment is expected to hit 37% by April, and in January this year inflation had rocketed to 2,688,670%.

The Lancet study was funded by the Scottish Funding Council GCRF Small Grants Fund.