A crisis in the healthcare system means that some people have not been vaccinated since 2016

Polio is suspected to have broken out in Venezuela, 24 years after the Americas were declared free of the disease.

The Venezuelan Society of Public Health, a non-governmental doctors’ association, said that three suspected cases were detected among an indigenous population in the remote northeastern state of Delta Amacuro, where the Orinoco River delta is located.

Venezuela, which is in the middle of a steep recession, is experiencing a crisis in public healthcare. Many hospitals are without regular running water or basic medicines.

The people in the area affected by the suspected outbreak had not been vaccinated since 2016, health workers said.

The first case, which emerged three weeks ago, involved a boy aged five who had not been vaccinated and was showing signs of