Venezuelan medics fear infections from quake injuries as search for untold dead continues
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Untreated wounds and infectious diseases are the biggest dangers facing survivors, doctors said Wednesday, a week after Venezuela’s historic twin earthquakes.
Thousands of Venezuelans displaced sleeping in crowded shelters or outside There is no access to clean water in an environment where sanitary conditions are poor after the June 24 earthquakes. Aid workers said what happened next became a major medical crisis that would claim more lives in the coming days and weeks if not quickly brought under control.
Hospital del Oeste Dr. in the capital Caracas. “The problem that we foresee very soon is infections that can be brought by patients who have been exposed to the disaster for the longest time,” said Eugenio Cova, head of the trauma unit at José Gregor Hernández.
The hospital has treated many seriously injured people since the earthquake, despite a lack of critical medical equipment. Cova said that the public hospital, some sections of which are no longer accessible due to possible earthquake damage, does not have the screws and plates necessary for orthopedic surgery and does not have medicated gauze to prevent infections. The earthquakes damaged or otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide, according to the government.
“We have already gone through a period of complex trauma – which will continue to happen – but now the situation has become even more complicated due to infections,” Cova added.
As the window of opportunity narrowed in the search for those trapped under the rubble, expert teams from more than two dozen countries began rescue operations on Wednesday. Despite the odds — survival time when trapped under debris is typically 48 to 72 hours — crews continue to find a small number of survivors, including a toddler who was trapped for six days Tuesday.
The United States, which took control of Venezuela’s oil industry after capturing Venezuela’s former leader Nicolás Maduro in January, has increased its aid in recent days, with 900 military personnel supporting relief and rescue efforts as of Wednesday, U.S. Southern Command spokesman Steven McCloud told The Associated Press. Another 100 people from the US State Department were deployed to assist with relief efforts in the field, the official said.
Venezuelan officials estimate that more than 1,900 people have died in the earthquakes as of Tuesday, and that number is rising every day. The fact that thousands of people are still missing adds uncertainty to the total toll of the tremors, leaving families in agonizing limbo as they wait for days next to collapsed buildings, hoping for the bodies of their loved ones to surface.
A nongovernmental digital database where families can register missing loved ones showed more than 40,600 people were still missing as of Wednesday.
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Janetsky reported from Mexico City and Debre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
