On 6 February, it will be one year since a series of devastating earthquakes hit southern Türkiye and northern Syria, killing 50 000 people 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.
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.
WHO supported both Türkiye and Syria by delivering health supplies, deploying experts, jointly coordinating the deployment of Emergency Medical Teams to affected parts of Türkiye, re-establishing and strengthening disease surveillance and outbreak response, and addressing mental health and psychosocial needs of the affected populations.
See more information in web stories and social media from WHO’s regional offices for Europe and for the Eastern Mediterranean, and on headquarters channels:
