Victims of the devastating twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela 16 days ago are now confronting a secondary crisis as overcrowded displacement camps breed skin infections and diarrheal diseases, revealing how disaster compounds the country's already fragile public health infrastructure.
The June 24 earthquakes killed 3,889 people and left roughly 18,000 without homes, according to Venezuelan officials. Now those survivors—packed into schools, sidewalks, parks, and plazas across the northern state of La Guaira—are turning up at makeshift clinics with ailments that extend far beyond trauma injuries. Doctors reported 1 day ago a sharp increase in skin conditions and diarrheal diseases, as well as urgent requests for medications to manage chronic illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure.
The Human Toll Beyond Rubble
U.N. relief chief Tom Fletcher visited Venezuela and told The Associated Press what he's witnessing at displacement sites. "It is clear at displacement sites that, particularly after two weeks, that people are turning up because they haven't been able to get their other treatments," Fletcher said. "So, they're not turning up with just the fractures now, they're turning up with those longer-term health needs. And it's vital that we're there for them."
Zulbey Reyes, 41, lost both her home and her job as a nanny in the disaster. She sought treatment at a clinic run by Venezuela-based organization Paluz in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, arriving with chest pain she feared was cardiac. "I thought it was my heart that was sick," Reyes said after receiving her diagnosis and medication. "But it's a nerve that became inflamed after the screams that day."
Irma Echarri, 67, showed up at a mobile unit on a sidewalk across from a church, clutching boxes of eyedrops and pain relievers. Her home wasn't damaged, but she needed new medications and treatment for nose pain that developed after the earthquakes. "It hurts a lot," Echarri said while waiting to be seen. "It hurts because it hurts."
Overwhelmed Health Systems
The emerging diseases can be tied to crowded living spaces and poor water and sanitation conditions, which in many communities predate the earthquakes. Now mobile kitchens, clinics, and field hospitals dot public spaces in La Guaira, where most of the devastation occurred. But the health workforce itself has been decimated.
Armando Denegri, representative in Venezuela of the Pan-American Health Organization, told reporters Thursday that "50% of the health professionals in La Guaira were directly affected" by the earthquakes. "Some disappeared, some died, others were severely affected by the crisis, impacting their families," Denegri said without giving further details.
International Response and Institutional Shift
The United Nations launched an appeal for roughly $300 million to assist 1.3 million people in urgent need of aid in the South American country. Fletcher, who heads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AP the United States has so far provided most of the earthquake-response aid. Much of the assistance on the ground is being delivered by local groups that have partnered with global humanitarian organizations.
Venezuelan officials reported that 190 buildings collapsed and 856 others were damaged in the back-to-back earthquakes. The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez has estimated about 18,000 people lost their homes. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has estimated direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure around $37 billion.
The widespread presence of nongovernmental organizations in the country and the freedom with which the government is allowing them to operate contrasts with the repression and persecution to which they were subjected in recent years. While Rodríguez served as vice president to former President Nicolás Maduro, organizations were repeatedly accused of anti-government activities and the U.N. local human rights office expelled.
"When you have a crisis of this magnitude, people put the politics to one side and are able to focus on saving as many lives as possible, and that's what I'm seeing so far in this response," Fletcher said.
Why This Matters:
The health crisis unfolding in Venezuela's displacement camps shows how natural disasters don't just destroy buildings—they expose and deepen existing inequalities in access to healthcare, clean water, and safe housing. When half the health professionals in the hardest-hit region are themselves victims, and survivors can't access basic medications for chronic conditions, the initial death toll represents only part of the human cost. The emergence of preventable diseases tied to crowded conditions and poor sanitation reveals the urgent need for sustained international support and coordinated public health intervention. The $300 million U.N. appeal isn't just about emergency relief—it's about preventing a humanitarian disaster from becoming a prolonged public health catastrophe for 1.3 million people. The government's newfound willingness to work with NGOs it previously persecuted suggests that effective disaster response requires institutional cooperation and the protection of civil society organizations that can reach vulnerable populations when state capacity fails.