EASAC: better healthcare for migrants needed
The European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) has called for improvement in healthcare screening and treatment for migrants entering the EU. Although most migrants are young and healthy, infectious diseases may be more common in some groups, EASAC states in a report published on 18 September. The paper also points out that comprehensive data are currently lacking. 'The public health implications of migration have received relatively little attention at political level,' said Volker ter Meulen, president of the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences, Germany, and chairman of the working group preparing the report. 'What is needed is a screening and treatment process that will determine the scale of the problem and tackle it, while still allowing migrants to openly enter the EU.' If a disease is discovered during the screening process, this should not be used as a reason to deny entry to the EU, since that 'could deter people from coming to screening or encourage illegal migration', Dr ter Meulen stresses. 'This would increase the spread of disease. The emphasis must be on ensuring effective treatment', he adds. Member States should ensure that migrants have the same access to healthcare as the rest of the population. According to the European Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), some infections which are spreading in large European cities are related to migration. For instance, the increase in cases of tuberculosis in Spain and Greece is said to be linked to growing migration from Asia, Africa and Latin America. However, tuberculosis is frequently the result of poor living conditions and a lack of access to healthcare. Hence, in population terms, the likelihood of migrants being infected is disproportionately high. In order to meet the challenge of communicable diseases in a world where spread patterns have changed to the same extent as travel pattern, EASAC also sees a need for improving the collection of information. Additional data is required to determine - burden of infectious diseases in migrant groups; - the nature and degree of public health risk from migration; - the nature of health inequalities between migrants and the rest of the population; - the efficacy of alternative screening approaches. The collection of these data would be greatly facilitated if a standardised set of protocols for testing and healthcare provision were established on European level, the organisation claims. In addition, EASAC says that the EU should take a lead role in strengthening public health capacity in newer EU Member States and in developing countries. EASAC's report comes ahead of a conference organised by the current Portuguese EU Presidency for 27 September 2007. The conference entitled 'Health and migration in the EU: better health for all in an inclusive society' intends to analyse the demographics of migratory flows in the EU and review Member States' health policies. The Portuguese Presidency has made the implementation of a 'global approach to migration' one of its priorities, stressing - among other things - the importance of a debate on the relationship between migration and health.