Officials fear a medical crisis as Venezuelans are evacuated from crowded shelters, hospitals
A week after twin earthquakes hit Venezuela, doctors on Wednesday said the biggest dangers now facing survivors are untreated wounds and infectious diseases.
Thousands of homeless Venezuelans are sleeping in overcrowded shelters or outside without access to clean water amid poor sanitation conditions following the June 24 earthquake that officials say has killed more than 2,200 people.
Aid workers say the aftermath of the earthquake has become a major health crisis that, unless it is brought under control quickly, will claim more lives in the coming days and weeks.
“The issue that we see in the corner is that patients who have been exposed to the disaster for a long time may be brought,” said Eugenio Cova, the head of the trauma unit at the del Oeste hospital Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez in Caracas, the capital.
“We’ve already gone through a period of complex trauma – which will continue to happen – but now it’s complicated because of disease.”
US increases military aid
The United States, which said it would take control of Venezuela’s oil industry after taking over from former leader Nicolas Maduro in January, has increased its aid, with 900 troops currently there to support relief and rescue operations as of Wednesday, Steven McLoud, a spokesman for the US Southern Command, told the Associated Press.
The military repaired the earthquake-damaged runway at Caracas’ main international airport to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid and military equipment stationed near the coast to airlift survivors.
Another 100 people from the US State Department have been sent to help those efforts, McLoud said.
So far, the Trump administration has given Venezuela 300 million US dollars in aid distributed by aid groups and the United Nations.
But that remains only a fraction of the post-earthquake aid the country needs. Direct damage from the quake was estimated at more than $6.7 billion, according to a satellite analysis by the UN Development Program.
It is also unclear how involved the US government will be in Venezuela’s massive reconstruction efforts, which could take years. UN agencies estimate that the earthquake accumulated 1.2 million tons of debris from destroyed buildings and property.
Hospitals that do not have the necessary equipment are facing surgery
Long before the earthquake, Venezuela’s public hospitals were suffering from chronic shortages of water, power, life-saving medical equipment and highly trained staff.
More than eight million people have fled the country’s economic downturn in recent years, including doctors and nurses.
Those who remain now face the daunting prospect of treating thousands of traumatic injuries from crushed and crushed concrete structures.
Vancouver resident Arnaldo Dos Santos is offering relief to the people of Venezuela after a business trip that was disrupted by the double earthquake that devastated the South American country. He is concerned about its ability to recover from damage.
The government on Tuesday raised the number of people injured in the earthquake to 10,571 – an increase of 5,000 from the day before.
The main hospital in Caracas lacks the screws and plates needed for bone surgery and the medicated gauze to prevent infections, said Cova, who operates on crushed limbs in makeshift operating rooms because potential damage from the quake has made parts of the building inaccessible.
According to the government, the earthquake damaged or damaged 38 hospitals across the country.
There is also a shortage of ambulances across the country, said Jaime Lorenzo, director of the non-profit organization United Doctors of Venezuela, and many patients arrive at hospitals in the back of trucks.
International rescue teams, including teams from Canada, have joined the search in Venezuela after a series of earthquakes, as the death toll rises and an approaching tropical storm adds to the urgency.
Lorenzo says he expects to see a new wave of patients – those who, suddenly left homeless after the earthquake, have gone a week without essential medicines for chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Aid workers also warn that severe damage to infrastructure is turning the worst-hit communities into hotbeds of disease.
“It’s very hot and there’s a lot of concern about diseases that can be carried by animals,” said Veronique Durroux, spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Waste management is a problem. Waste management, when you see the level of destruction, is very worrying.”
The search for survivors continues
Even as the chances dwindled as the search for survivors was trapped under the debris, experts flew in from more than two dozen countries and continued rescue efforts on Wednesday.
Against these odds – the window for survival when trapped under debris is typically 48 to 72 hours – teams continue to find a small number of survivors, including a toddler who was rescued on Tuesday after being trapped for six days.
Venezuelan officials have counted 1,943 deaths from the earthquake since Tuesday, with the number rising daily. Many thousands more are still missing, adding to the uncertainty of the death toll and leaving families in dire straits as they wait for days in collapsed buildings, hoping for the bodies of their loved ones to turn up.
One non-governmental website where families can register missing persons showed more than 40,600 people still missing as of Wednesday.
