How long does one remain a refugee? Imagine abandoning your home over fear of losing your life, and then often living without family, possessions, livelihood, or ability to plan for your future. Even with significant assistance, such a limbo existence must be as short as possible. Now we consider Refugee Care, Phase 4, the […]
The emergency phase of refugee care requires immediate shelter, nutrition, and medical intervention. If the displacement extends beyond a period of weeks, additional human needs must be addressed. Phase 3, the Maintenance Phase, has begun. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as of this writing, some 4 million refugees have sought safety in
Despite skilled negotiation when conflict appears imminent, the pre-emergency phase, diplomatic forces often fail. Conflict irrupts. Civilians are threatened with violence, repression, hunger, and disease. Faced with little alternative, they flee their homes seeking immediate safety, commonly traveling by foot with only the barest of possessions or provisions. On Thursday, February 20, 2022,
This winter I am teaching the INMED International Refugee Care Course. In January and February, we explored the notable crises in Venezuela, Yemen, Syria, and surrounding nations. 12 days ago, as hundreds of thousands of women and children fled Ukraine, an INMED learner remarked with angst, “My gosh, we are seeing a refugee crisis unfold
Why do we still have refugees? As critical as is this question, a thoughtful inquiry begins with still deeper questions: why do we still have war, poverty, or social injustice? One week each month, I am the emergency physician for a small Missouri town. Almost every patient is compelled to come to my ER suffer
Is the COVID-19 Pandemic simply a once-in-a-lifetime threat? Or rather, is this a warning of health emergencies to come? Today’s globalization of travel and commerce make communicable, infectious diseases much more transmissible person-to-person and nation-to-nation. August’s analysis by the Center for Global Development projects that the probability of another COVID-19-like pandemic in the next
700,000 Americans are now documented dead from COVID-19, making it the deadliest disease event in American history. This grim stat exceeds even the number of deaths from the infamous 1918 Spanish Influenza. To date, 400 million doses of highly effective COVID-19 vaccine have been given in the US and just now added is a
“Turbulence in Afghanistan – people fleeing their homes from the Taliban – is already provoking worldwide migration,” report my colleagues at the United Nations. “Like a ripply effect, desperate human beings running for their borders provoke greater insecurity among vulnerable people in neighboring nations, who in turn flee for safety. These ripples are becoming
Mother and children during the Great Depression. Elm Grove, Oklahoma, USA. Many people live on the margins of United States society due to race, language, ethnicity, income, immigration status, and more. The United States is distinct from other developed countries in that there is no single national health care system that provides access for
I have a small scar on my left arm – a reminder of the smallpox pandemic that killed as many as three out of every 10 people infected and claimed the lives of some 300 million people since 1900. The smallpox vaccination left this small scar. But today, younger persons have no such scar.