Child Morbidity and Disease Burden in Refugee Camps in Mainland Greece.

Maria Schoina,Eustathios Partsanakis,Stefanos Tsiamitros,Elias Iosifidis,Elisavet Chorafa,Konstantinos Roukas,Georgios Tzikos,Dimitrios Deligeorgakis,Asterios Kampouras

doi:10.3390/children6030046

Maria Schoina, Eustathios Partsanakis + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/children6030046

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Abstract

The crisis conflicts in Syria have forced a lot of people to relocate and live in mainland Greece, where they are hosted in refugee camps. In the present study, our aim was to assess child morbidity and overall disease burden in two camps in northern Greece during a six-month winter period. A primary health care office was founded in each camp. Refugees of all ages with health problems were examined daily by specialty doctors. Cases were classified into two categories: Infectious or non-infectious. In total, 2631 patients were examined during this period (out of the 3760 refugees hosted). Of these patients, 9.8% were infants, 12.7% were toddlers, and 13.4% were children. Most of the visits for children aged less than 12 years old were due to infectious diseases (80.8%). The most common sites of communicable diseases among children were the respiratory tract (66.8%), the skin (23.2%), and the urinary (3.2%) and gastrointestinal tracts (6.2%). Non-communicable diseases were mostly due to gastrointestinal (20.2%), respiratory (18.2%), surgical (13.1%), and allergic (10.3%) disorders. Infants, toddlers, and children suffered more frequently from respiratory infections, while in adolescents and adults, non-infectious diseases were more common. Toddlers and children were more likely to fall ill in comparison to infants. Conclusions: During the winter period, infectious diseases, especially of the respiratory tract, are the main reason for care seeking among refugees in Greek camps, with toddlers suffering more than other age groups. The overall mortality and referral percentage were low, indicating that adequate primary care is provided in this newly established refugee hosting model.

Highlights

The ongoing crisis with the intense conflicts in Syria and neighboring countries has forced more than 6 million people to abandon their home countries, seeking a safer place to relocate to [1].The deteriorating situation in Syria accounts for the increased amount of refugees, whose primary destinations are countries in central and northern Europe, which they have tried to reach by followingChildren 2019, 6, 46; doi:10.3390/children6030046 www.mdpi.com/journal/childrenChildren 2019, 6, 46 the eastern Mediterranean route through Turkey and Greece [1,2]
Our study was conducted in two refugee camps in northern Greece during the autumn-winter period from October 2016 to March 2017
The age group of adults who were examined consisted of 1453 patients (55.2%). (Table 1) Regarding their gender, 48.2% of the refugees seeking medical care were male and 51.8% were female

Summary

Introduction

The deteriorating situation in Syria accounts for the increased amount of refugees, whose primary destinations are countries in central and northern Europe, which they have tried to reach by following. Children 2019, 6, 46 the eastern Mediterranean route through Turkey and Greece [1,2]. For whom Greece was mainly a transitional location, had their dream interrupted [3]. The implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement on March 2016 drastically limited the arrival of more refugees to Greece, who instead will likely try to reach Europe through irregular ways, risking their lives [2,3,4]. More than 62,000 refugees are currently stranded in Greece, with no prospect of moving to any northern countries [5]

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