Everything Under The Sun: Importance Of Health Care In Refugee Camps

At the Zaatari camp, Haijar, held by her mother, was successfully treated for TB at the age of one.

Today, June 20, is World Refugee Day, a day when we remember the many areas of the world that are in such crisis that the local people have become displaced in order to achieve some measure of safety. Many reside in refugee camps, with various sponsors providing for, at least, some of their needs. In other places, though, those needs are inadequately met, and safety is just a desire unfulfilled.

THE GLOBAL FUND, along with the ELIZABETH GLASER PEDIATRIC AIDS FOUNDATION, are pausing to highlight the needs of refugees for health care services, particularly the effort to end HIV, TB, and malaria.

In refugee camps, people live in close contact with each other, in various types of temporary shelters that inadequately protects against the elements. That leaves those who reside in these camps vulnerable to pathogens.

Take the Syrian refugees, many of whom have been housed in Jordan and Lebanon. Global Fund is providing essential services in the area of tuberculosis (TB) prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. When refugees arrive, they are screened for TB immediately (it does take three days for results of a PPD test to be completed and viewed) and referred for appropriate services. Health care professionals are also receiving training, along with increased awareness of the illness, and eventually able to staff mobile clinics.

Since this program started, about 400 cases of confirmed TB have been identified and started treatment. Of those, four cases in Jordan turned out to be multi-drug resistant. The treatment of TB, which lasts for at least six months, has been successful in 90% of Syrian refugees.

Throughout the Middle East, which is overburdened from displaced people and refugees, the result of the many ongoing conflicts, providers undertake to follow the people. That means taking the services to the various refugee camps. By focusing on preventing illness among those already weakened physically, the resources for health care have been freed to take care of those who have actually developed illnesses.

Some children at Zataari refugee camp.

Abd Al Gader's story illustrates what happens when a refugee turns up at a camp with an illness. Abd was only 12 years old when he arrived with his family at the Zaatari refugee camp, after they escaped the war in Syria. He and his family left their farm in Damascus with only the belongings they could carry to embark on the arduous journey to a safer area. Their journey took days; they were forced to sleep in the open on cold February nights, while encountering thieves and shelling along the way until they could cross the border. Meanwhile, Abd had run out of his TB medicine and his cough had worsened under the conditions of the journey. Once at the camp, Abd was able to resume taking his medicine when screened at the camp clinic and his family has settled into their temporary shelter. Because of prompt treatment, Abd's TB has now been cured and he can engage in physical activities with his friends and attend school. Not to mention that continuing the TB medication also prevented him from spreading the illness to others. That's how critical health care is to the community of refugees.