What researchers can do to help

Ali al-Bash and his mother, Amina Raslan, and their family in a building in Aleppo damaged by the February 6 earthquake. Photo: Louay Bishara/AFP/Getty Images

Three weeks have passed since southern Turkey and northwest Syria were devastated by the earthquakes that began on February 6th. More than 50,000 people were killed, 70,000 injured, and at least 160,000 buildings collapsed, in whole or in part.

Thousands of volunteers have been joined by UN organizations and other aid agencies in both countries. The World Food Program delivers millions of hot meals. The World Health Organization supplies hospitals with painkillers and antibiotics. The World Bank has pledged nearly $1.8 billion for recovery and reconstruction, and is appealing to UN Secretary-General António Guterres for $1 billion to Turkey and nearly $400 million to Syria, to be distributed to organizations providing food, shelter, and education. Separately, the Red Cross/Red Crescent has launched an appeal for about $700 million.

Turkey-Syria Earthquake: What Scientists Know

The Turkish government pledged to rebuild the houses within a year. But there is no such aid (let alone other aid) across the border in northwestern Syria, where the earthquake has killed more than 4,500 people, injured 8,500, destroyed some 10,000 buildings, and left some 11,000 homeless. The people of northwestern Syria do not have a unified government. They are locked in a war, a legacy of the 2011 revolution – part of the Arab Spring – that was suppressed by the government of President Bashar al-Assad in a Russian-backed military operation. The area is also effectively isolated. There are only three (temporary) crossing points for supplies to reach people along Syria’s 900km border with Turkey.

Even before the earthquakes, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that more than half of northwest Syria’s 4.7 million people were internally displaced, around 70% of them living in temporary housing (often in tent cities). More than three million do not have enough to eat and a third of them are disabled, many of them due to war. Healthcare facilities have been targeted, leaving only 66 hospitals still functioning, but they are poorly equipped, amid an ongoing cholera outbreak.

Nature has spoken to researchers, medical professionals, and engineers in the region and internationally. They tell us that northwest Syria is in dire need of expertise and specialized equipment, as well as financing. For example, volunteer engineers go from house to house using hammers to measure whether a building is habitable, and the World Health Organization estimates that between them, district hospitals have 64 x-ray machines, 73 dialysis machines, and 7 computed tomography (imaging machines). computed tomography (CT) and one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.But the researchers told Nature that access to spare parts and expert technical support is just as important as the machinery itself to keep things working.

There are research projects studying the situation. One is UK-funded research to strengthen health systems in Syria, which looks at how health care has been affected by the war, and identifies what more sustainable models of governance and financing could look like, says co-researcher Abdelkarim Ixayes, an epidemiologist. at King’s College London.

MRIs of 4.7 Million People: The Battle of Treating Syria Earthquake Survivors

Members of the international research community can also join in broader efforts to mitigate the situation. They can donate money – for example, by responding to international appeals or donating to organizations listed at go.nature.com/3kq2rpn. They can urge lawmakers to advocate for keeping crossing points into northwestern Syria open long after emergency humanitarian assistance ends — two of the three are scheduled to close in May, and the third in July. If this happens, the population of the area will be isolated.

Researchers can urge the WHO to prioritize the region’s health needs. The agency is credible, and through Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, it can do more to use this situation to urge all power brokers on the ground to allow it to work with other experts to provide immediate and long-term assistance, including much-needed assistance to rebuild homes and health systems.

This tragedy has opened a rare window for further international support for people who have been neglected for so long. Researchers can help keep this window open.

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