The inflation of consumer goods has seen the prices for ordinary products such as deodorant and sugar sky rocket in the country.
The price comes from the website MercadoLibre which sells goods in short supply.
Venezuela’s economy is teetering on collapsing after the price for its oil exports fell 60 per cent in seven months.
The increasing lack of access to contraception is a major concern to those working to improve the country’s rates of HIV infection and teenage pregnancy – one of the worst percentages in South America.
“Without condoms we can’t do anything,” Jhonatan Rodriguez, general director of nonprofit health group StopVIH, told Bloomberg News. “This shortage threatens all the prevention programs we have been working on across the country.”
What’s more, in a country where abortion is illegal, if contraception becomes out of reach for ordinary people there is a fear that it will lead to dangerous secret or backyard abortions. Which threatens the lives of women.
The news comes as researchers are attempting to understand what is driving a worldwide contraception problem, in particular, to understand the impact of unwanted pregnancy in less developed parts of the word.
Research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that, “after becoming pregnant without intention, many of these women are presented with a stark set of scenarios: risk of death, disability and lower educational and employment potential.” Their children also face heightened risks of dying at a very young age.”
However WHO found that in many cases of unwanted pregnancy the rationale behind not using contraception was more to do with misinformation, culture and societal reasons rather than access.
According to the statistics, 37 per cent cited fear of side effects and 17 per cent underestimated the risk of pregnancy.
