Premium
Surveillance of the Health and Nutritional Status of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh
Author(s) -
WIJNROKS MARIJKE,
BLOEM MARTIN W.,
ISLAM NAEL,
RAHMAN HABIB,
DAS SWAPAN KUMAR,
HYE ABDUL,
HALL GILLIAN
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1993.tb00507.x
Subject(s) - refugee , environmental health , epidemiology , medicine , burmese , psychological intervention , population , occupational safety and health , poison control , internally displaced person , suicide prevention , medical emergency , geography , psychiatry , pathology , archaeology , linguistics , philosophy
Early in 1992, Bangladesh experienced an influx of Burmese refugees, reaching a total of 263,000 by May. As the health and nutritional status of the refugee population was reportedly poor, a need was felt to collect dependable data through epidemiological surveillance, on which interventions could be based. The nutritional and health status of children was dramatically poor in all camps surveyed and a deterioration was expected in the coming monsoon. Several problem areas could be identified. Based on these findings it was possible to undertake appropriate action and to avert threatening calamities. Epidemiological surveillance is an important monitoring tool to provide reliable data on the health and nutritional status of refugee populations and to help the organizations involved to prioritize and evaluate their actions.