Sometimes Elif Yasar goes to his ruined house to wash himself. Normally, she shouldn’t have been allowed inside after an earthquake.

“We didn’t shower for two weeks,” he says, as if trying to justify himself. Using the stove, she and her daughter Melike try to heat the water they brought in barrels. There is no water flowing from the faucet, but at least there is privacy. One stands at the door, so that in the event of an earthquake, he can quickly get out. At least that’s what they hope. After the earthquake, 40-year-old Elif lives with her family in a camp at the entrance to Kahramanmaras. One tent next to another.

cholera danger

Pipes from stoves stick out, heating is done by stoves. The smell hangs in the air, smoke envelops the atmosphere. In Turkey alone, about 1.6 million people live in shelters. No one knows how many of them there are in Syria.

According to the UN emergency agency Ocha, people from 40,000 families were left homeless after the disaster. Earthquake victims live in tents, with relatives in the countryside, or on trains at the station. Some are relatively well off, have heaters, eat regularly, shower, and take care of their children. Others live in unheated tents with no running water or sewerage.

For example, in the completely destroyed Antioch, people report that open spaces are being turned into makeshift toilets. This, according to medical experts, can lead to microbes entering the groundwater. Given the difficult living conditions of many affected by the earthquake, doctors are already warning of another disaster in Turkey and Syria, namely the outbreak of epidemics.

In Syria, the situation is even more complicated than in Turkey. In the northwest, people have been out of healthcare for a long time “due to war and forced displacement,” says MSF Vice President Parnian Parvada. “Even before the earthquakes, there were cases of cholera in the area.”

There have been 47,000 suspected cholera cases and 20 deaths in northwest Syria that could be cholera-related, according to the UN.

Cholera is actually easy to treat if patients have access to medical care. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cholera can lead to kidney failure or even death due to significant fluid loss.

MSF describes how earthquakes destroyed hospitals and sanitation facilities. In many areas there are problems with water treatment. The countless bodies yet to be recovered could also contaminate the water, warns Thomas Geiner, an earthquake doctor and member of the Navis association’s disaster relief team.

No vaccines

It is estimated that thousands of dead are under the ruins in Turkey. The authorities are trying to return them as soon as possible. “In areas where people don’t have access to clean drinking water, epidemics will break out at some point,” Geiner warns.

Parwana of Médecins Sans Frontières also fears a cholera outbreak in the earthquake area. “The situation could get out of control,” says Mohannad Hadi, UN emergency coordinator for Syria. He also foresees the risk of a cholera pandemic in Turkey, especially when temperatures rise again.

The head of the Adana Medical Association, Selahattin Mendez, has yet to see signs of this phenomenon in Turkey, but emphasizes that safe containerization, provision of running water, hygiene and waste transport are now the most pressing issues to prevent infections. illness. MSF is also calling for the immediate provision of water and sanitation to earthquake areas. Another risk factor for epidemics is large crowds.

In camps where people displaced by violence and bombings, especially in Syria, were already living in poverty before the earthquakes, there are now many new homeless people who are also seeking shelter.

“Resources in these places are far from meeting all the needs of people for drinking water, sanitation and other basic commodities,” warns Parvada. Lack of vaccines can also be a problem and contribute to, for example, the spread of measles. “The situation in Turkey and Syria resembles the situation in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.says Thomas Geiner. More than 200,000 people died as a result of the earthquake. And then thousands more, from cholera.

Source: Deutsche Welle.