CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A week after Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes, doctors on Wednesday said the biggest dangers now facing survivors are untreated injuries and infectious diseases.

Thousands of displaced Venezuelans are sleeping in crowded shelters or outside without access to clean water amid dismal sanitary conditions following the June 24 earthquakes which officials say killed at least 2,295 and left more than 11,000 injured.

Aid workers said the aftermath of the quakes has become a major medical crisis that, unless quickly controlled, would take more lives in the days and weeks ahead. The emergency has laid bare Venezuela's chronic shortage of doctors, the result of years of economic crisis, underfunding and emigration.

“The issue we foresee just around the corner is the infections that patients who have been exposed to the disaster for the longest time might bring,” said Eugenio Cova, the head of the trauma unit at Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregorio Hernández in Caracas, the capital. “We’ve already gone through the period of complex trauma — which will continue to occur — but now it’s complicated by infections."

Aid workers also warn that the extensive damage to infrastructure is turning hard-hit communities into petri dishes for disease.

“It’s very hot and there’s a lot of concern about potential vector-borne diseases,” said Veronique Durroux, the U.N. humanitarian agency spokesperson for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Waste management is an issue. Debris management, when you see the scale of devastation, it’s very concerning.”

US military deploys 900 personnel to aid Venezuela

The United States had 900 military personnel currently on the ground to support relief and rescue operations as of Wednesday, Steven McLoud, a U.S. Southern Command spokesperson, told The Associated Press.

The military has repaired an earthquake-damaged runway at the main international airport that serves Caracas to allow for the arrival of humanitarian assistance and stationed naval assets off the coast to receive airlifted survivors. An additional 100 people from the U.S. State Department have been sent to aid those efforts, McLoud said.

So far, the Trump administration has offered Venezuela $300 million in assistance channeled through aid groups and the United Nations. But that remains just a fraction of the post-earthquake aid the country needs: Material damage from the quakes is estimated at over $6.7 billion, according to satellite analysis by the U.N. Development Program.

Fifty other international teams have arrived in recent days to help with search-and-rescue operations, including from countries like Ecuador and Israel that don't have diplomatic relations with Venezuela. Against the odds — the time period for survival when trapped under rubble is typically 48 to 72 hours — rescuers are continuing to find a small number of survivors, including on Tuesday, a toddler who had been trapped for six days.

Underequipped hospitals face a surge

Long before the earthquakes, Venezuela's public hospitals were strained by shortages of water, energy, critical medical equipment and highly trained staff.

Among the 8 million people who fled the country's economic crisis in recent years are many specialized doctors and nurses.

“Doctors between the ages of 35 and 55 have left and taken with them a ton of experience,” said Jaime Lorenzo, director of United Doctors of Venezuela, a nonprofit network of medical professionals.

Those who remain now confront the overwhelming prospect of treating thousands of grievous injuries from crushed and caved-in concrete structures. The government on Wednesday raised the number of people injured in the quakes to 11,267.

Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregorio Hernández in Caracas lacks screws and plates needed for orthopedic surgery and medicated gauze to prevent infections, said Cova, who conducts surgery on crushed limbs in makeshift operating rooms because possible earthquake damage has made parts of the building inaccessible. According to the government, the earthquakes damaged or otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide.

There's also a nationwide shortage of ambulances that forces most injured Venezuelans to arrive to hospitals in the backs of pickup trucks, said Lorenzo. That's just one of the ways that ordinary citizens, feeling abandoned by the government, say they've been forced to shoulder much of the rescue effort.

When the chaos and trauma of this first week after the quake starts to subside, Lorenzo said he fears a new wave of patients will hit hospitals: Venezuelans, who, rendered suddenly homeless after the earthquakes, have gone all week without medication for chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Questions over government response

The government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez — who served as deputy to President Nicolás Maduro until he was ousted by the United States in January and who became interim leader with the backing of the Trump administration — has faced growing criticism over its handling of the disaster.

Videos circulating on social media in recent days appear to show security officers picking through the rubble of fallen buildings and making off with U.S. dollars, appliances and other personal belongings and sparking widespread anger among Venezuelans. The videos could not be verified by the AP.

In response to the videos, the the Interior Ministry on Wednesday said it dismissed and detained four police officials for “deviating from their duties and taking advantage of the rescue and humanitarian aid efforts."

Rodríguez announced seven days of national mourning on Wednesday to honor victims.

Many thousands remain missing, adding ambiguity to the temblors' complete toll and leaving families in an agonizing limbo as they wait days by collapsed buildings, hoping for the bodies of their loved ones to surface.

One non-governmental digital database where families can register missing loved ones showed over 40,600 people still unaccounted for as of Wednesday.

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This story has been corrected to show the U.S. Southern Command spokesperson's name is Steven McLoud, not Steven McCloud, and the hospital name is Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregorio Hernández, not Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregor Hernández.

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City and DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.