Aid agencies and public health experts predict that a cholera outbreak that was discovered in Syria last year may get worse following the devastating earthquake.
The most recent statistics, 33,181 people have died as a result of the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last Monday. According to the Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM, the country’s death toll now stands at 29,605.
Syria Cholera Outbreak
The warnings were issued six days after a series of earthquakes struck the area, when rescue efforts had ended in both opposition- and government-held areas of Syria and hope had waned despite ongoing searches in Turkey. At least 4,500 people had died in Syria as of Sunday, bringing the overall death toll in the two nations above 35,000.
There was a perfect storm brewing before the earthquake in war-torn Syria, where the UN estimates that 5.3 million people have been rendered homeless by the disaster, according to Eva Hines, chief of communications for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Damascus.
This storm included rising food insecurity, collapsing healthcare systems, a lack of access to safe water, and poor sanitation.
The Syrian government declared a cholera outbreak in September of last year. Cholera is a diarrhoeal infection brought on by consuming food or water contaminated with the Vibrio cholera bacteria. The illness can be fatal, especially for young children.
The outbreak was largely attributed to the nation’s war-torn water system, which forced citizens to drink and irrigate crops with tainted water from the Euphrates river in the northeast of the country.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), nearly half of the suspected 77,500 cases of cholera in the nation as of January 18 were in the northwest region, with 18% discovered in camps for internally displaced people.
A Canadian seismologist, the earthquakes that occurred in Turkey earlier this week were among the biggest continental quakes ever recorded. Professor of seismology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Edwin Nissen, claimed in an interview with the Anadolu news agency that the tremors that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday are among the top five or ten continental quakes ever recorded.
Read more: Bird flu linked to bear, mountain lion and skunk deaths in Colorado
Austrian Army Resume Rescue Operations
The Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit reports that the Austrian Army has resumed rescue operations in Turkey after a brief halt because of security risks (AFDRU).
AFDRU said in a statement that day that operations were suspended early on Saturday due to a deteriorating security situation and that there was rising hostility in Turkey between groups. Teams had resumed operations, Austrian Army spokesman Michael Bauer announced on Twitter later that day.
AFDRU shared a picture on Facebook with the caption, “Recovery dog handler helping Turkish rescue workers again,” adding that Turkish forces were manning the search areas and providing security. There have been 82 AFDRU soldiers deployed since Tuesday, and they are expected to return on Thursday.
According to the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), all rescue efforts in Germany are still on hold because of security reasons. The statement also noted that Turkish teams had received assistance from the agency’s paramedics and technical tools last night as they worked to extricate an 88-year-old woman from the rubble.
Read more: Vitamin D: Could be weapon against type 2 diabetes
