Here’s how you know that things are bad in Venezuela: condoms are $755 a pack — when you can even find them. As Bloomberg reports, since Venezuela imports their consumer products, Venezuelans have to wait on ever-growing lines for products like chicken, sugar, diapers, and now condoms. A pack of condoms in Venezuela costs the same an iPhone in the United States, Business Insider noted. There’s some supply and demand for you, huh?The price of birth control is almost laughable, but this is a serious health issue. The results of not using a condom can be dire: HIV/AIDS organization AVERT reports that Venezuela had 99,000 citizens living with HIV/AIDS in 2011 and one of South America’s highest rates of HIV infection. The country also has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancies in South America. Additionally, abortion is illegal there. According to Carlos Cabrera, vice president for local branch of International Planned Parenthood Federation, the lack of condoms is certain to “raise the number of female deaths by driving more pregnant women to clandestine clinics.””Without condoms we can’t do anything,” Jhonatan Rodriguez, general director at the not-for-profit health group StopVIH, told Bloomberg, “This shortage threatens all the prevention programs we have been working on across the country.”READ MORE: Do Birth Control Pills Make You Gain Weight? 4 Ways You Can Still Get Pregnant on the Pill
LATEST
