The Syrian Refugee Crisis: A Ticking Global Health Time-Bomb

By Matthew Boyce, first year MSc-GH candidate

On September 2, 2015 photos of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year old Syrian boy, whose drowned body washed ashore a Turkish beach, demanded immediate attention, making headlines on major media outlets and social media platforms alike. It propelled the Syrian civil crisis into the spotlight of our society—a five-year-long crisis that has already left at least 200,000 dead and another four million people refugees, an estimated two million of them children. 

And while there has been a lot of political discussion about how to best integrate refugees, there has not been much discussion of what is essentially a ticking time-bomb: refugee health.

The tricky part about tackling this problem of refugee health is that the health risks of the population are inherently highly variable. The “refugee experience,” as it may be termed, can be broken down into three main stages—preflight, flight, and resettlement—each presenting a unique situation for any number of communicable or non-communicable health conditions and diseases. 

Refugees represent a highly vulnerable population and may enter a country with significant burdens of disease. This burden may include an array of conditions including but not limited to communicable diseases (e.g., tuberculosis), vaccine preventable disease (e.g., polio), mental disorders, malnutrition and drug addiction. 

And while many countries’ health and sanitation systems succeed at providing for their current residents, the added burden that refugees will pose on these existing systems will likely expose gaps and lead to shortcomings. For example, doctors working in refugee camps are already warning of the potential for outbreaks of typhoid, cholera and jaundice, among other diarrheal disease diseases, as a result domestic waste and sewage polluting water sources. 

Perhaps even more important to account for is the long-term health problems that may arise as a result of the refugee experience. Traumatic preflight experiences of witnessing or experiencing shootings, physical and sexual assault, extreme fear and torture may result in significant mental and emotional health problems including PTSD and depression. Additionally, the process of adapting to life in a new nation in the resettlement phase can present an entirely different set of stressors that may contribute to poor mental health outcomes.

Given the horrors that these people have already endured, one can only hope that they will have a smooth transition into their new lives. But the unfortunate reality is while some may, many will not. As such, while politicians discuss how to best integrate refugees, world health officials might as well start discussing how to expand existing health systems to accommodate these people in desperate need of help.