India, July 2 -- A week after Venezuela's historic twin earthquakes, doctors on Wednesday said the biggest dangers now facing survivors were untreated wounds 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. Aid workers said the aftermath has become a major medical crisis that, unless quickly controlled, would take more lives in the days and weeks ahead.

"The issue we foresee just around the corner are 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 Jose Gregor Her...