Disease Status of Afghan Refugees and Migrants in Pakistan

Overview

Journal Front Public Health

Specialty Public Health

Date 2019 Jul 24

PMID 31334212

Citations 9

Authors

Muhammad Suleman Malik

Muhammad Afzal

Alveena Farid

Fati Ullah Khan

Bushra Mirza

Mohammad Tahir Waheed

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

World is facing the largest refugee crisis of its time due to continuously outgoing wars, conflicts and natural disasters. One of the important aspects of refugees and migrants is health. Till date, no comprehensive data was available related to health status of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan. Here, we present health status for Afghan refugees for last seven years and for IDPs for 2-4 years. For Afghan refugees the data was provided by Commissionerate Afghan Refugee (CAR), Pakistan, whereas data for IDPs was collected from hospitals and Basic health units (BHUs) of different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa namely Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu. Highest number of Afghan refugee's deaths occurred due to cardiovascular problems. Most prevalent reported infections were respiratory tract infections (48.05%). Skin diseases and Diarrhea collectively affected 21.08% of Afghan refugees. Overall, disease burden was more in females than males in Afghan refugee's population. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive report on health and disease status of Afghan refugees and IDPs in Pakistan.

Citing Articles

Protocol for a cross-sectional study on factors affecting health-related quality of life among Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Rehman A, Zakar R, Zakar M, Hani U, Fischer F F1000Res. 2024; 10:971.

PMID: 38827571 PMC: 11140308. DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.73005.1.

Nutritional and health status of Afghan refugee women living in Punjab: A cross-sectional study.

Fatima M, Nosheen F, Afzaal M, Islam F, Noreen R, Imran A Food Sci Nutr. 2023; 11(6):2872-2882.

PMID: 37324867 PMC: 10261817. DOI: 10.1002/fsn3.3267.

Health Status of Afghan Refugees in Europe: Policy and Practice Implications for an Optimised Healthcare.

Matsangos M, Ziaka L, Exadaktylos A, Klukowska-Rotzler J, Ziaka M Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(15).

PMID: 35954518 PMC: 9368211. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19159157.

Migrating Populations and Health: Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease and Metabolic Syndrome.

Rosenthal T, Touyz R, Oparil S Curr Hypertens Rep. 2022; 24(9):325-340.

PMID: 35704140 PMC: 9198623. DOI: 10.1007/s11906-022-01194-5.

Adolescent Afghan Refugees Display a High Prevalence of Hyperhomocysteinemia and Associated Micronutrients Deficiencies Indicating an Enhanced Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Later Life.

Khan M, Saeedullah A, Andrews S, Iqbal K, Qadir S, Shahzad B Nutrients. 2022; 14(9).

PMID: 35565715 PMC: 9105069. DOI: 10.3390/nu14091751.

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