Refugees pose little health risk, says WHO
BMJ 2015; 351 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h4808 (Published 08 September 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h4808All rapid responses
Rapid responses are electronic comments to the editor. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on bmj.com. A rapid response is first posted online. If you need the URL (web address) of an individual response, simply click on the response headline and copy the URL from the browser window. A proportion of responses will, after editing, be published online and in the print journal as letters, which are indexed in PubMed. Rapid responses are not indexed in PubMed and they are not journal articles. The BMJ reserves the right to remove responses which are being wilfully misrepresented as published articles or when it is brought to our attention that a response spreads misinformation.
From March 2022, the word limit for rapid responses will be 600 words not including references and author details. We will no longer post responses that exceed this limit.
The word limit for letters selected from posted responses remains 300 words.
Ms Gulland's headline is somewhat sweeping.
Of course there is little, almost nil risk from Ebola or Sars type illnesses coming in.
However, anyone in health services with knowledge (even if only from books) of the migrations at the end of WW2, the millions migrating across the Sir Cyril Redcliffe boundaries of the previously single Punjab, the Ugandan migration to England in 1972, will be aware that diseases associated with abrupt, unplanned, massive translocation, coupled with hunger, include lice, scabies, typhoid, malaria, enteric parasites and mycobacterial infections.
Not for a moment do I suggest razor wire fences. Nor quarantine of the million or so.
But, I do suggest that the migrants, refugees, incomers, or whatever term you care to use, should be screened at the first place of arrival in the EC, by doctors, and their findings plus recommendations for follow-up should accompany these prople all the way to their terrestial heaven or haven in Northern Europe.
Readers will recall that Benito Mussolini got rid of malaria by draining tbe marshes. Are there no pools of stagnant water in Italy any more? Is Greece free from Anopheles? For, surely there is bound of be a supply of Plasmodia in quite a number of the incomers.
Finally, after their pre-migration experiences plus, to put it mildly, their difficult journeys, many must display signs of anxiety, anger, short temper, even violence.
What, if any, psychological or psychiatric support are they receiving on arrival or en route to the North?
Competing interests: No competing interests
the problem of an influx of large no. of people to another place could pose a health issue for the resident population, but as they are healthy people who are not migrating due to health issues they certainly pose no threat as far as the influx of disease is concerned. studies have shown that mass migration of people from regions with high endemicity of certain infections didn't pose a threat to the local population. so, certainly good evidence for the same and good news for humanity..!
Competing interests: No competing interests
No screening for infectious diseases for hundreds of thousands that pass through Greece!
Most of immigrants that pass through Turkey and Greece towards Northern Europe are not from Syria, but from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Eritrea, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria.
All known endemic areas of dangerous transmissible diseases.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie...
Criminal rings keep supplying fake Syrian passports to whoever has cash to buy them.
Frontex and Greek officials warn that even countless ISIS/Daesh terrorists are entering Europe with fake Syrian passports, mingling with refugees.
http://www.protothema.gr/world/article/505165/frontex-rings-supplying-fa...
There is absolutely no medical assistance for tens of thousands of immigrants or proper screening for infectious diseases in the first entrance point of Europe, Greece.
Immigrants are frenetically photographed and registered and then quickly sent away on ships, in order to continue their journey to the desired Countries, usually Germany/Sweden/Norway/France/Denmark/Britain.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a8e2c3b2-57d8-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.html
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie...
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie...
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie...
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie...
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie...
Competing interests: No competing interests