Refugee Health During COVID-19 and Future Pandemics
Tóm tắt
This commentary summarizes recent literature pertaining to healthcare challenges and needs during the current pandemic among refugees and asylum seekers residing in a host country. We conducted a literature review to identify barriers to shielding these structurally marginalized populations from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many populations, including refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers, endure structural vulnerabilities in refugee camps and during their resettlement. These structural vulnerabilities include fear of contacting the healthcare system, cultural differences, housing insecurity, food insecurity, discrimination, lack of health insurance, health illiteracy and lack of readily available, and culturally appropriate educational materials. During pandemics, displaced persons suffer disproportionately from poorly managed chronic diseases, economic hardships isolation, and mental illnesses, in addition to the threats posed by the infectious agent. Underserved groups, including refugee populations, shoulder a disproportionate burden of disease during pandemics. In order to mitigate the impact of preventable chronic illnesses and also reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other easily-transmissible and deadly viruses during pandemics, governments and public health authorities need to implement policies that allow refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced persons to be fully incorporated into their respective healthcare systems, so that they can be supported and protected and to reduce the amplifying networks of transmission.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Cucinotta D, Vanelli M. WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic. Acta Biomed. 2020;91(1):157–60.
Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O ' Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, al-Jabir A, et al. World Health Organization declares global emergency: a review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg. 2020;76:71–6.
Nott D. The COVID-19 response for vulnerable people in places affected by conflict and humanitarian crises. Lancet. 2020;395(10236):1532–3. This article discusses some of the major challenges that displaced people have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bhala N, Curry G, Martineau AR, Agyemang C, Bhopal R. Sharpening the global focus on ethnicity and race in the time of COVID-19. Lancet. 2020;395(10238):1673–6.
Kassem II. Refugees besieged: the lurking threat of COVID-19 in Syrian war refugee camps. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020:101736.
Rowan SE, H. M., Cervantes L, Hawkins K, Barahona Vargas L, Duarte-Corado D, Ryan A, Franco-Paredes C, Prioritizing justice in the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in BMJ Medical Humanities 2021. 2021.
Truman BI, Tinker T, Vaughan E, Kapella BK, Brenden M, Woznica CV, et al. Pandemic influenza preparedness and response among immigrants and refugees. Am J Public Health. 2009;99(Suppl 2):S278–86.
Havumaki J, Meza R, Phares CR, Date K, Eisenberg MC. Comparing alternative cholera vaccination strategies in Maela refugee camp: using a transmission model in public health practice. BMC Infect Dis. 2019;19(1):1075.
Phares, C.R. and L. Ortega, Crossing borders: one world, global health. Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2014. 58(1): p. iv-v. This is an important summary and declaration of the IDSA regarding the global challenges posed by the growing number of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and their medical and public health needs.
Health Equity Considerations and Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups. [cited 2021; Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html.
Abbas M, Aloudat T, Bartolomei J, Carballo M, Durieux-Paillard S, Gabus L, et al. Migrant and refugee populations: a public health and policy perspective on a continuing global crisis. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2018;7:113. This article summarizes public health policy priorities for refugees and migrant populations.
UNHCR-Figures at a Glance. 2020 [cited 2020 18, 2020]; Available from: https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html. This report presents overall statistics regarding immigrant and refugee populations worldwide and the current state of affairs representing a public health issue of global reach.
Truelove S, Abrahim O, Altare C, Lauer SA, Grantz KH, Azman AS, et al. The potential impact of COVID-19 in refugee camps in Bangladesh and beyond: a modeling study. PLoS Med. 2020;17(6):e1003144.
Vignier N, Bouchaud O. Travel, migration and emerging infectious diseases. EJIFCC. 2018;29(3):175–9.
Raju E, Ayeb-Karlsson S. COVID-19: How do you self-isolate in a refugee camp? Int J Public Health; 2020.
Anwar S, Nasrullah M, Hosen MJ. COVID-19 and Bangladesh: Challenges and How to Address Them. Front Public Health. 2020;8:154.
Vince G. The world ' s largest refugee camp prepares for covid-19. BMJ. 2020;368:m1205.
Gilman, R.T., et al., Modelling interventions to control COVID-19 outbreaks in a refugee camp. BMJ Glob Health, 2020. 5(12).
Subbaraman N. ' Distancing is impossible ' : refugee camps race to avert coronavirus catastrophe. Nature. 2020;581(7806):18.
Vonen HD, et al. Refugee camps and COVID-19: Can we prevent a humanitarian crisis? Scand J Public Health. 2020:1403494820934952.
Lau LS, Samari G, Moresky RT, Casey SE, Kachur SP, Roberts LF, et al. COVID-19 in humanitarian settings and lessons learned from past epidemics. Nat Med. 2020;26(5):647–8.
Hartnett KP, Kite-Powell A, DeVies J, Coletta MA, Boehmer TK, Adjemian J, et al. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Emergency Department Visits - United States, January 1, 2019-May 30, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(23):699–704.
Greenaway, C., et al., COVID-19: exposing and addressing health disparities among ethnic minorities and migrants. J Travel Med, 2020. 27(7).
Junior JG, et al. A crisis within the crisis: the mental health situation of refugees in the world during the 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Psychiatry Res. 2020;288:113000.
Thomas CM, Osterholm MT, Stauffer WM. Critical Considerations for COVID-19 Vaccination of Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021;104(2):433–5.
Bhopal RS. COVID-19: Immense necessity and challenges in meeting the needs of minorities, especially asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. Public Health. 2020;182:161–2.
Kondilis E, et al. Covid-19 and refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in Greece. BMJ. 2020;369:m2168.
Tran NT, Tappis H, Spilotros N, Krause S, Knaster S, Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises. Not a luxury: a call to maintain sexual and reproductive health in humanitarian and fragile settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet Glob Health. 2020;8(6):e760–1.
Fawad M, Rawashdeh F, Parmar PK, Ratnayake R. Simple ideas to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic on refugees with chronic diseases. Confl Heal. 2020;14:23.
Keller AS, Wagner BD. COVID-19 and immigration detention in the USA: time to act. Lancet Public Health. 2020;5(5):e245–6.
Hargreaves J, Davey C. and H.I.V.p.f.t.C.-r. Group for lessons from pandemic, Three lessons for the COVID-19 response from pandemic HIV. Lancet HIV. 2020;7(5):e309–11.
Krishnaratne S, Hensen B, Cordes J, Enstone J, Hargreaves JR. Interventions to strengthen the HIV prevention cascade: a systematic review of reviews. Lancet HIV. 2016;3(7):e307–17.
Guterres A. Opening remarks at virtual press encounter to launch the Report on the Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19. March 31, 2020. United Nations Secretary-General. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2020-03-31/remarks-launch-of-report-the-socio-economic-impacts-of-covid-19.