Riccardo Mazzoli, Anna Laura Santunione, Francesca Marezza, Alessandra Sannella, Francesca Berghenti, Tommaso Filippini, Marco Vinceti, Rossana Cecchi
{"title":"Health status of a migrant population: a survey within an Extraordinary Reception Centre in Parma, Northern Italy.","authors":"Riccardo Mazzoli, Anna Laura Santunione, Francesca Marezza, Alessandra Sannella, Francesca Berghenti, Tommaso Filippini, Marco Vinceti, Rossana Cecchi","doi":"10.1093/eurpub/ckaf076","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The steady flow of migrants is an ongoing challenge that requires health systems to adapt to unique health needs and to address inequalities. For this reason, comprehensive screening, early intervention, and culturally sensitive care are vital to improve migrants' health outcomes. We assessed migration history and health status in 536 migrants housed at \"Svoltare ONLUS\", an Extraordinary Reception Centre in Parma (Northern Italy), from 2015 to 2018. The focus was on migration journey characteristics and motivations, and testing for infectious diseases such as hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV), HIV, tuberculosis (TB), syphilis, and parasitosis. Migrants were overwhelmingly male (95.9%), with a mean (range) age of 26 (18-50) years. The majority originated from Sub-Saharan Africa (83.2%), with Nigeria as the predominant country. Most migrants entered via Libya (87.1%), disembarking primarily in Southern Italy, particularly Sicily (75.4%). High prevalence rates were found for HBV (48.8%), TB (27.8%), and parasitosis (23.1%), particularly among those from Western Africa. In contrast, HCV (2.61%), chronic hepatitis (5.41%), syphilis (2.99%), and HIV (1.31%) were less common. These trends are consistent with disease epidemiology in migrants' countries of origin as well those visited during the journey. Given the higher prevalence of infectious diseases among migrants compared to the general population in Italy, it is essential to enhance public health measures. This includes implementing timely screening services, targeted surveillance, and prompt treatment upon arrival at reception centers to protect both migrant and community health.</p>","PeriodicalId":12059,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Public Health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Public Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaf076","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The steady flow of migrants is an ongoing challenge that requires health systems to adapt to unique health needs and to address inequalities. For this reason, comprehensive screening, early intervention, and culturally sensitive care are vital to improve migrants' health outcomes. We assessed migration history and health status in 536 migrants housed at "Svoltare ONLUS", an Extraordinary Reception Centre in Parma (Northern Italy), from 2015 to 2018. The focus was on migration journey characteristics and motivations, and testing for infectious diseases such as hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV), HIV, tuberculosis (TB), syphilis, and parasitosis. Migrants were overwhelmingly male (95.9%), with a mean (range) age of 26 (18-50) years. The majority originated from Sub-Saharan Africa (83.2%), with Nigeria as the predominant country. Most migrants entered via Libya (87.1%), disembarking primarily in Southern Italy, particularly Sicily (75.4%). High prevalence rates were found for HBV (48.8%), TB (27.8%), and parasitosis (23.1%), particularly among those from Western Africa. In contrast, HCV (2.61%), chronic hepatitis (5.41%), syphilis (2.99%), and HIV (1.31%) were less common. These trends are consistent with disease epidemiology in migrants' countries of origin as well those visited during the journey. Given the higher prevalence of infectious diseases among migrants compared to the general population in Italy, it is essential to enhance public health measures. This includes implementing timely screening services, targeted surveillance, and prompt treatment upon arrival at reception centers to protect both migrant and community health.
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Public Health (EJPH) is a multidisciplinary journal aimed at attracting contributions from epidemiology, health services research, health economics, social sciences, management sciences, ethics and law, environmental health sciences, and other disciplines of relevance to public health. The journal provides a forum for discussion and debate of current international public health issues, with a focus on the European Region. Bi-monthly issues contain peer-reviewed original articles, editorials, commentaries, book reviews, news, letters to the editor, announcements of events, and various other features.