Science: Refugee crisis brings new health challenges
“…Many of the migrants come from countries where public health systems are in disarray, and some are infected with pathogens that are rare, or even unheard of, in Europe. … At the meeting [of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases], Dutch scientists presented evidence of scabies, a mite infestation, in up to a third of asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa; another study showed that about one in 300 refugees screened in the German state of Thuringia was a carrier of Salmonella or Shigella, an unusually high percentage. … The bigger challenge is how to ensure that refugees don’t get sick after their arrival. … Many refugees also arrive unprotected from deadly diseases, because war and unrest have interrupted vaccination programs in their home countries…” (Kupferschmidt, 4/22).