Rise in Scorpion and Snake Attacks in Earthquake Zone – Recent News from Turkey
Emergency departments in the earthquake region of Turkey are still dealing with a high influx of patients following the February 6 earthquakes. The Turkish Emergency Medicine Association (TATD) held a national congress in Antalya to bring together emergency medicine specialists who have been working in the region since the earthquakes occurred. At the congress, the “Earthquake Workshop” was held to discuss ongoing problems in regional emergencies and measures that need to be taken. Many hospitals are facing a large patient load due to patient applications dispersed from heavily damaged health facilities. In addition, many emergency physicians and health personnel are still trying to cope with the high number of patient applications per day, and some hospitals have reported an increase in scorpion and snake bites and eye infections.
TATD Disaster Group Secretary Assoc. Dr. Sarper Yılmaz expressed concern that regional people do not know about field hospitals since most health facilities in 10 provinces were damaged, making it difficult for people to access other health facilities. Yilmaz emphasized that coming to emergency services to ask where to receive treatment adds an unnecessary workload and increases the number of patients in emergency departments. Proportionally, the number of emergency patients has doubled, which means it is more difficult to manage truly critical patients.
The TATD is working to prepare a report on the problems faced in the emergency departments and the necessary precautions that need to be taken, including increasing awareness of field hospitals and educating regional people on alternative health facilities.
