Do Eritrean refugees undergo health checks before entering Switzerland?
(Keystone)
According to a recent survey, nearly half of Eritrean refugees in Switzerland are infected with wired insect disease. So should refugees coming to Switzerland undergo a systematic physical examination? The views of the researchers and the Swiss Federal Health Service are not unified.
The physical condition of Eritrean refugees was first revealed in a survey, which has just been published by the Swiss television station 10 vor 10, in which nearly 100 Eritrean refugees participated.
Dr Afona Chernet, a tropical and public health institute based in Basel, conducted a medical examination of the refugees who had been in Switzerland for less than a year. He himself was a refugee who had fled Eritrea and was now a staff member of the agency. Through tests of blood, urine and stool, he tested nearly 100 refugees for nematode disease. Nematode disease is common in Eritrea.
"Our tests should ease the work of family doctors." The African doctor said: "Because in Switzerland, many people have access to refugees, so family doctors should be informed. ”
Lack of vitamin D and inflammation
This is the first survey conducted in Europe, and the results show that 90% of refugees suffer from vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sunlight. If left untreated, symptoms of bone and muscle weakness can easily occur. In addition, 50% of refugees have symptoms of post-traumatic disorder.
Nearly half of the refugees are infected with schistosomiasis, a nematode disease that is widespread in East Africa and transmitted through worm eggs in freshwater that refugees contract because they come across such water sources at home or on their way to escape. These worm larvae enter the body through the skin, survive in the liver and large intestine, and have the potential to proliferate and, if left untreated, potentially fatal.
Dr Chernet said the infected refugees did not know they had nematode disease and, curiously, "they didn't have any signs either." Now that the situation was known, it would be advisable to conduct medical examinations of the newly arrived refugees. ”
There is no danger
Fortunately, this nematode cannot be transmitted through human-to-human contact, so people living in Switzerland are not threatened, the doctor emphasizes.
But the refugees' family doctors should be informed, and Niklaus Labhardt, the head of the investigation, said the federal government must make clear provisions for systematic physical examinations of new refugees.
Voices of opposition
Asylum seekers who are new to Switzerland are required to answer many questions, but there are no health questions. Systematic medical checkups, also known as "health screening", were discontinued a few years ago.
Switzerland only conducts tuberculosis tests for refugees, and Daniel Koch of the Federal Health Service believes that this is enough and that there is no point in setting health screening regulations.
InfoN swissinfo.ch and Swiss television station SRF