Data from: A refugee camp in the center of Europe: clinical characteristics of asylum seekers arriving in brussels

Background In the summer of 2015, the exodus of Syrian war refugees and saturation of refugee camps in neighboring 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 that arrived in a huddled refugee camp, in the center 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 complaints and diagnoses of all patients presenting to an erected Field Hospital in Brussels in September 2015. Diagnoses were post-hoc categorized according to the International Classification of Diseases. Results Of 4037 patients examined in the Field Hospital, 3907 were included and analyzed 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. Conclusion 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 of 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

data van Berlaer et al Refugee Camp Brussels

data van Berlaer et al Refugee Camp Brussel