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. 2016 Nov 24;6(11):e013963.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013963.

A refugee camp in the centre of Europe: clinical characteristics of asylum seekers arriving in Brussels

Gerlant van Berlaer  1   2 , Francisca Bohle Carbonell  3 , Sofie Manantsoa  3 , Xavier de Béthune  3 , Ronald Buyl  4 , Michel Debacker  2 , Ives Hubloue  1   2
Affiliations

A refugee camp in the centre of Europe: clinical characteristics of asylum seekers arriving in Brussels

Gerlant van Berlaer et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Background: In the summer of 2015, the exodus of Syrian war refugees and saturation of refugee camps in neighbouring countries led to the influx of asylum-seekers in European countries, including Belgium. This study aims to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of asylum seekers who arrived in a huddled refugee camp, in the centre of a well-developed country with all medical facilities.

Methods: Using a descriptive cross-sectional study design, physicians of Médecins du Monde prospectively registered age, gender, origin, medical symptoms and diagnoses of all patients presenting to an erected field hospital in Brussels in September 2015. Diagnoses were post hoc categorised according to the International Classification of Diseases.

Results: Of 4037 patients examined in the field hospital, 3907 were included and analysed for this study. Over 11% of patients suffered from injuries, but these were outnumbered by the proportion of patients with respiratory (36%), dental (9%), skin (9%) and digestive (8%) diagnoses. More than 49% had features of infections at the time of the consultation.

Conclusions: Asylum seekers arriving in a refugee camp in Brussels after a long and hazardous journey suffer mostly from respiratory, dental, skin and digestive diseases. Still, one in seven suffers from injury. These findings, consistent with other reports, should be anticipated when composing emergency medical teams and interagency emergency health or similar kits to be used in a field hospital, even in a Western European country.

Trial registration number: ISRCTN13523620, Results.

Keywords: ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY MEDICINE; EPIDEMIOLOGY; PRIMARY CARE; PUBLIC HEALTH.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age distribution of patients by gender.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Countries and regions of origin of asylum seekers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Twenty most common primary diagnoses observed in asylum seekers (%).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Proportion of diagnostic categories observed in asylum seekers (%).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons. Asylum statistics September 2015. http://www.cgra.be/sites/default/files/asylumstat­_september_2015.pdf (accessed 29 Jun 2016).
    1. European Commission, Eurostat. Record number of over 1.2 million first time asylum seekers registered in 2015. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-press-releases/-/3-04032016-AP (accessed 29 Jun 2016).
    1. Debacker M, Hubloue I, Dhondt E et al. . Utstein-style template for uniform data reporting of acute medical response in disasters. PLoS Curr 2012;4:e4f6cf3e8df15a. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Medical Association. WMA declaration of Helsinki—ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Bull World Health Organ 2001;79:373–4. - PMC - PubMed

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