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Medical experts fear what could happen in Venezuela two devastating earthquakes they can cause serious health problems characterized by chronic injuries, infectious diseases, and medical care that is about to collapse.
Thousands of Venezuelans who fled their homes are sleeping in overcrowded makeshift shelters or outside without access to clean water amid unsanitary conditions after the June 24 earthquake, which officials said Wednesday killed at least 2,295 people and left more than 11,000 injured.
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“The problem that we foresee is very close to the disease that the patients who have been exposed to this disaster for a long time can bring,” said Eugenio Cova, head of the trauma clinic at the Jose Gregorio Hernandez hospital in Caracas.
“We have already gone through a period of difficult problems – which will continue to happen – but now it is difficult with diseases,” said Cova.
Aid workers are also warning that extensive damage to infrastructure could lead to outbreaks of disease in hard-hit areas.
“There are many reports among people here of diarrhea and other illnesses,” said Al Jazeera reporter Teresa Bo, referring to the shelter in La Guaira.
“They are asking, for example, for portable toilets, and for the government to try to rehabilitate these places to prevent overcrowding and the spread of disease,” said Bo.
The US military has sent 900 people to help Venezuela
The United States has sent about 900 troops to Venezuela to support rescue operations since Wednesday, Steven McLoud, a spokesman for the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), told the Associated Press news agency.
According to Mr. McLoud, the US military has repaired the runway damaged by the earthquake at Venezuela’s main airport, which serves Caracas, to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid, and has placed naval vessels along the coast of the country to support the operation.
An additional 100 people from the US State Department have been sent to help, McLoud said.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump’s administration has given $300m in aid to Venezuela through aid groups and the United Nations.
That donation is just one part of the post-earthquake aid that the country needs, with damage from the earthquakes costing about $6.7bn, according to a satellite study by the UN Development Programme.
About 50 aid groups from other countries have arrived in the country in recent days to help with search and rescue operations, including Ecuador and Israel, which do not have diplomatic relations with Venezuela.
Against these odds, rescuers continue to find a few survivors, including on Tuesday, a small child who had been trapped for six days under the rubble.
Kevin Simm, a volunteer worker, told Al Jazeera the scale of the destruction was war-like.
“This clearly reminds us of what is happening in Gaza and Ukraine,” Simm said.
It’s like a scene from a movie or from a war zone… We’ve never seen this in peacetime.
Venezuela’s disaster-hit hospitals posed another challenge
Long before the earthquakes, Venezuela’s public hospitals were struggling due to a lack of water, power, critical medical equipment, and trained staff, according to reports.
More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since the economic crisis began in 2013 under the leadership of President Nicolas Maduro, who was abducted by US troops in a military operation, along with his wife, earlier this year.
Many specialized doctors and nurses were among those who left, with Venezuela’s medical association saying nearly a third of its 60,000 registered doctors have left the country.
Huniades Urbina, board member of Venezuela’s paediatrics Association, said the 2025 global study of public hospitals showed a reduction of more than 30 percent of supplies, and more than 70 percent of supplies in operating rooms.
The laboratories “are either closed or doing basic things,” Urbina said.
The earthquakes “also show that the Venezuelan government is unable to provide adequate health services that meet the needs of the Venezuelan people”, he added.
