REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:
Management of non-communicable diseases remains a major challenge among the Syrian refugees in the 3RP countries. A recent study conducted by BioMed Central ‘Prevalence and care-seeking for chronic diseases among Syrian refugees in Jordan’ shows that more than half of Syrian refugee households in Jordan reported a member with a non-communicable disease (NCD). Among adults, hypertension prevalence was the highest followed by arthritis, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and cardiovascular disease.
In November, health partners together with the Ministries of Health continued to provide much-needed heath care for Syrians refugees and local communities across the five countries. In Turkey, health partners organised awareness sessions on diabetes and conducted blood sugar screening on the occasion of World Diabetes Day on 14 November. Training on a wide range of health issues including Turkish health legislations on communicable and non-communicable diseases was provided to some 26 Syrian doctors in the fifth session of the Refugee Doctors Adaptation Training (ReDAT).
In Iraq, 31,832 consultations were provided in primary health care facilities (PHCs) in the refugee camps, with upper respiratory infections, diarrhoea and skin infections being the main reasons for the consultations. Over 900 patients were referred for secondary and tertiary health care services for further investigations or hospitalization.
In Egypt, to raise the quality of health care services in referral hospitals, an assessment of the Ministry of Health-run hospital in Damietta Governorate was conducted, focussing on equipment, infrastructure, management systems and care processes in both clinical and non-clinical areas, resulting in identifying some areas for improvement. Some 30 health care professionals received training and quality committees were established to monitor and evaluate the quality of care through progressively upscaling and improving clinical and non-clinical care management systems.