The aim of the four-week humanitarian mission from March 13, 2023 with Doctors of the World e.V. in Antakya, Turkey, was to provide medical aid to those affected by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that occurred on February 6, 2023 near the Turkish border with Syria. Dr. Fröschl has summarized some of his impressions in a blog post by Doctors of the World:
According to Dr. Fröschl, the city of Antakya presents an almost surreal sight: You almost only see collapsed houses, fields of rubble. Every day, the Doctors of the World team travels to the surrounding villages, where many of Antakya's inhabitants have fled to, and almost every one of them lives in a tent. Dr. Fröschl and the team have set up an improvised practice in tents or in buildings that are still standing, with a table, three chairs and boxes of medication. Most of the patients have respiratory diseases because the nights are cold and damp and they have to sleep on the floor of the tents. Every day, almost 200 patients are examined by two medical teams - with a doctor and a nurse in each team.
The Doctors of the World team also regularly travels to the mountain villages towards the Syrian border, where people of Syrian and Turkish origin have fled from poorer backgrounds. The people live in tents in very confined spaces, with up to six people living in a four by five meter tent. Due to the cold in the mountains, the tents have to be heated with wood and stoves, which leads to smoke. These difficult conditions cause various clinical symptoms that the team is confronted with on a daily basis: Respiratory diseases and eye irritations. Scabies mites are also observed. This is a highly infectious skin parasitic disease that is characterized by severe itching, insomnia and skin lesions, particularly on the hands and in the bends of the joints. A significant proportion of children are infected. Treatment is carried out with creams or lotions containing insecticides.
To learn more about Dr. Fröschl's work on the ground, please read his full blog post published by Doctors of the World.
