One year ago, in the middle of winter, a series of devastating earthquakes hit both southern Türkiye and northern Syria, killing over 59 000 people — over 53 500 in Türkiye and 5900 in Syria. Tens of thousands more people were injured and thousands of homes and public buildings, including hospitals, were damaged or destroyed. This was one of the biggest disasters in the region in recent times.
The earthquakes required a massive health response. Despite the disruption to health services due to damaged infrastructure and transportation, health workers and volunteers worked day and night, providing first aid, wound and surgical care to people suffering from spinal cord injuries, loss of limbs, traumatic brain injuries, and bone fractures.
In Türkiye, the national authorities coordinated a large number of medical evacuations and established field hospitals in the affected areas to provide care for the injured.
In Syria, the earthquakes hit communities that had already been deeply affected during the 13-year long conflict-driven crisis, characterized by repeated displacement, disease outbreaks and a severely weakened health system. Increasing tensions within the country and the region continue to exacerbate the already precarious health situation of nearly 15 million people in need of health services across the country.
Survivors struggled to get access to basic health services for the treatment of chronic conditions, as well as maternal, newborn and child health care. Mental health needs triggered by the initial event were heightened by thousands of aftershocks coupled with poor living conditions, in overcrowded shelters, where protection concerns and the risk of disease spread became higher. Damaged water networks and at least 125 health facilities, and untold numbers of medical equipment and devices, further disrupted access to basic services for affected populations in Syria. Heavy snow, rainfall and power cuts hampered humanitarian access while the lack of communications and fuel aggravated the situation.
In the first days after the earthquakes, WHO mobilized support to life-saving trauma care for hundreds of casualties. WHO supported both Türkiye and Syria by delivering health supplies, sending experts for technical support, jointly coordinating the deployment of Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) to affected parts of Türkiye, supporting mobile health teams who provided health care services to affected populations in Syria, re-establishing and strengthening disease surveillance and outbreak response, and addressing mental health and psychosocial needs of the affected populations.
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