Global refugee crisis deepened amid surging health threats

Publish: 3:25 PM, June 25, 2018 | Update: 3:25 PM, June 25, 2018

Omer Fayshal Pavel
Migration is not a new word at all. The movement of population is a common trend from the very beginning of the human era. In previous days people migrated from one place to another when there was a challenge from nature, but now situation has changed a lot. Not only is the climate forcing to migrate but also humans who are forcing other humans to move from home place to another and introducing a new group of people known as Refugee. A refugee in general, a person forced to move from home country for any instability in surviving there. The reasons why a group of people is forced to be refugee can be political or religious beliefs, ethnicity, nationality or being a part of a particular social group.
According to UNHCR our world has almost 22.5 million refugees. If we have a look at global refugee numbers and nations or people who are in need of urgent support, it would be quite surprising. The Democratic Republic of Congo emergence forced over 735,000 refugees to migrate to sub-Saharan, whereas Burundi situation added Over 420,000 refugees till the end of April 2018. Without these incidences, the most burning topics like Iraq and Syria migrations are quite known in the refugee chapter. In a report of UNHCR stated that about 362,000 refugees and migrants risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea in early 2016, with 181,400 people arriving in Italy and 173,450 in Greece. In the first half of last year that is 2017, over 105,000 refugees and migrants entered Europe.
In last August’ 2017, one of the most significant events, as well as the largest influx of refugees in Asia, had taken place. More than 720,000 refugees have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017. They walked through mountains and accepted the voyage across the Bay of Bengal by risking their lives to have a place to take shelter, to have some food to eat and to have humanitarian supports to save their lives.
Majority times we are quite focused on the movement of the huge population by concerning the political issues but what happens when the matter encompasses the general health both the refugees’ and locals’?
It should be noted that majority of the diseases with refugees are found are accidental injuries, hypothermia, burns, gastrointestinal illnesses, cardiovascular events, maternal complications, diabetes and hypertension. There are non-communicable diseases thus don’t have a chance to get spread by the contact of the refugees. At the same time, they may have the higher prevalence of mental disorders, drug abuse, lower nutritional status with other complication those can influence the non-communicable disease among them.
But the issue demands consideration when it is a matter of communicable or infectious disease. It is true that refugees and communicable diseases have no systematic association. But migrants are often from communities affected by war, conflict or economic crisis moreover undertake long, exhausting journeys that may increase their chances for diseases that include communicable. In this category of diseases tuberculosis, AIDS, hepatitis, measles, diphtheria and rubella are quite common.
The most concerning one is TB which has the incidence in the countries of origin varies from as low as 17 new cases per 100000 populations in the Syrian Arab Republic to 338 in Nigeria. TB is not easily transmissible as active disease occurs in only a proportion of those infected and symptoms start showing within a few months or a few years after infection. But TB is not often transmitted from migrants to the resident population because of limited contact.
What about the HIV and other viral diseases like influenza? Although the chance of spreading HIV is limited as it requires physical contact or exchange of blood, there are some records on HIV containing parents in refugees which can spread this disease among the other refugees, which will bring an urgent emergence for the host country. On the other hand, the significance of influenza is not limited. It is a respiratory disease so it can easily transmit from the area of refugees from the area of locals through transmission. The same thing happens in the case of respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, parainfluenza virus.
Without this, there are two major threats to health sector from forced migration. These are vector-borne disease and antimicrobial resistance. In the vector-borne disease dengue, malaria and leishmaniasis can be noted. It mainly depends on the prevalence of the disease in the home country of the refugees as well as the path travelled by the refugees to reach the expected region. And antimicrobial resistance is not a disease but it is a notable global threat in this modern civilization. This is the result of rapid infectious diseases and overuse of antimicrobial drugs. This overdose or multi antimicrobials can be needed when the victims are suffering from multi infections.
There is another part of health that cannot be seen but having significance in the physical health as well as the socioeconomic sectors. This is mental health. Normally refugees come from far away by passing a long distance sometimes with their family of sometimes losing their family in the war. After that they get involved in a totally new community, place and living live thinking all happiest memories they had in their home country. Moreover, their previous experience of vulnerability, war or natural disasters can easily hamper their mental stability and make one of the worst existing mental conditions.
If we try to scratch a conclusion line, it may not possible. Because it is not only an issue of health or dignity, it has the influence of the power, politics or sometimes a very big question of surviving. But as a global citizen and part of mankind it’s their right to live a safe life. Human has survived and defeated natural obstacles for more than 200,000 years and till now are able to survive for more millions of years but this requires the surveillance that no other factors will hamper the dignity of lives and no obstacles will be there for a mother to bring a healthy child with the promise of secure future.

The writer is a founder and co-editor at Association of Life Science and Engineering Writers (ALSEW). He can be communicated at [email protected]