A patient with symptoms of COVID-19 in Venezuela has to have 40 to 100 dollars to pay for an analysis to determine if they have contracted the disease, or, otherwise, make a pilgrimage through public centers in looking for an unlikely free exam or finally opting for self-diagnosis.
Direct diagnostic tests, either a PCR-RT or antigen test, are the way to corroborate the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body, but several specialists have expressed their concern about the difficulties they are going through Venezuelans to access these studies for free.
And it is that the Venezuelan minimum monthly salary is 7 bolivars, which is equivalent to 1.5 dollars, an amount with which no citizen can pay the costs of a COVID-19 test, much less treatment to alleviate the disease.
The president of the Venezuelan Society of Infectious Diseases, Manuel Figuera, is aware of this difficulty and reminded Efe that the State must guarantee these free tests, "which, unfortunately, it has not done," leaving citizens defenseless against the pandemic.
NO TESTS, NO RECORD
Figuera assured that currently patients with symptoms of COVID-19 must visit different Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers (CDI, outpatient clinics), public hospitals and Social Security offices to look for some site where the COVID-19 test is applied, as the tests are not regularly available in these centers.
"In the past, even in private centers they were doing tests of this type and they stopped doing them a long time ago. Nowadays, unfortunately, people mainly have private tests that, from the point of view of From an epidemiological-statistical point of view, they are not included in the national statistics", pointed out the also infectious disease specialist.
Thus, the specialist added the problem of underreporting of positive cases to limited access to tests to rule out COVID-19.
Figuera referred to the emergence of new laboratories that operate in commercial offices, hotels and even parking lots and offer the COVID-19 test without the data of positive cases being sent to the request of the National Executive, which obviates these results of its official count.
This is one of the reasons why, in recent days, the Venezuelan Society of Infectious Diseases recommended expanding the free availability of direct tests, antigen or molecular PCR-RT type, to detect COVID-19.
The doctors issued a statement in which they stressed the importance of "expanding the availability of free tests" for the detection of COVID-19, "so that symptomatic people and their contacts can isolate themselves in a timely manner in case of positivity", since the lack of diagnosis also influences the spread of the virus.
"The most important thing is that the person who has symptoms from day one should get a test and not wait, because if a positive case is detected from day one and isolated, you will avoid more infections," he explained figuera.
TRAPPED
Andrea González, a 27-year-old Venezuelan journalist, lived the journey of contracting COVID-19 and not being able to afford the expenses caused by the virus.
The symptoms appeared in the first days of 2022, when González's financial situation was not good. She had only $100 when she and her partner got sick, and she had to choose between buying medicine, food and personal items or paying for tests to confirm they had COVID-19.
"The most difficult thing was getting the test, because I was able to pay for it, but not everyone can pay $25 for a test. Now imagine paying $100 for a molecular test, because I had it done quickly and that It is not 100% reliable (...) Already out there one is wrong," he explained to Efe.
In the best-known laboratories in Caracas, a PCR-RT test costs $80 for adults and $100 for children under 12 years of age. Regarding antigen tests, the cost is $40 for adults and $60 for children under 12 years of age.
All laboratory costs are expressed in US currency and citizens can pay in foreign currency or in bolivars.
But, Venezuelans who do not even have the means to pay for the least expensive analysis, are forced to presume the disease, take a few days off, and wait for the COVID-19 to leave their bodies as it arrived, without leaving trace.
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