Undocumented migrants during the Covid-19 pandemic: social conditions, clinical features and pharmacological treatment
- Gianfrancesco Fiorini Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan and Istituti Clinici Zucchi, Carate, Italy. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5468-4063
- Antonello E. Rigamonti Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Italy. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2489-9108
- Charilaos Galanopoulos Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Italy.
- Martina Adamoli Opera San Francesco per i Poveri, Milan, Italy.
- Emanuela Ciriaco Opera San Francesco per i Poveri, Milan, Italy.
- Matteo Franchi National Centre for Healthcare Research and Pharmacoepidemiology, Milan, Italy. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9620-8057
- Eleonora Genovese Laboratory of Healthcare Research and Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
- Giovanni Corrao National Centre for Healthcare Research and Pharmacoepidemiology, Milan, Italy.
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Silvano G. Cella
|
silvano.cella@unimi.it
Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, and National Centre for Healthcare Research and Pharmacoepidemiology, Milan, Italy.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6884-3766
Abstract
Population groups such as undocumented migrants have been almost completely forgotten during the COVID-19 pandemic, though they have been living in all European countries for decades and new arrivals have continued throughout the pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate their health conditions during the current pandemic. We analysed the records of 272 patients with respiratory issues attending the outpatient clinic of a large charity in Milan, Italy: amongst them, 18 had COVID-19 confirmed by rhino-pharyngeal swab and 1 of them deceased. All the patients attending the clinic appeared to have several risk factors for COVID-19 and chronic conditions suspected to predispose to the disease and/or to worsen severity and outcomes: hypertension, immunosuppression and previous close contact with COVID-19 patients were the most important ones. Presenting symptoms were worse in patients with COVID-19 than in those with other respiratory issues. These results are discussed in light of the necessity to provide better healthcare to undocumented migrants.
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References
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3. Gudbjartsson DF, Helgason A, Jonsson H, et al. Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the Icelandic population. N Engl J Med 2020;382:2302-15. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2006100
4. Schiffrin EL, FlacK JM, Ito S, Clinton Webb R. Hypertension and Covid-19. Am J Hypertens 2020. doi:10.1093/ajh/hpaa057
5. Page KR, Venkataramani M, Beyrer C, Polk S. Undocumented U.S immigrants and Covid-19. N Engl J Med 2020;382:2. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2005953
6. Ahmed R. Challenges of migration and culture in a public health communication context. J Publ Health Res 2018; 7:1508. doi: 10.4081/jphr.2018.1508
7. Quian M, Jiang J. Covid-19 and social distancing. J Publ Health 2020. doi: 10.1007/s10389-020-01321-z
8. Gibson L, Rush D. Novel Coronavirus in Cape Town informal settlements: feasibility of using informal dwelling outlines to identify high risk areas for COVID-19 transmission from a social distancing perspective. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2020;6(2):e18844. doi: 10.2196/18844
9. Brandenberger J, Baauw A, Kruse A, Ritz N. The global COVID-19 response must include
refugees and migrants. Swiss Med Wkly. 2020;150:w20263. doi: 10.4414/smw.2020.20263
10. Orcutt M, Pate P, Burns R, et al. Global call to action for inclusion of migrants and refugees in the COVID-19 response. Thelancet.com 2020;395:1482-1483. doi 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30971-5
11. Guo W, Li M, Dong Y, et al. Diabetes is a risk factor for the progression and prognosis of COVID-19. Diabetes Metab Res Rev. 2020;e3319. doi 10.1002/dmrr.3319
12. Stefan N, Birkenfeld AL, Schulze MB, Ludwig DS. Obesity and impaired metabolic health in patients with COVID-19. Nature Reviews – Endocrinology 2020. doi 10.1038/s41574-020-0364-6
13. Fiorini G, Cerri C, Rigamonti AE, et al. Gender and age-related differences in the use of medicines for chronic diseases among undocumented migrants. Int J Migr Health Soc Care 2018;14:221-229, doi: 10.1108/IJMHSC-11-2017-0047
14. Vaduganathan M, Vardeny O, Michel T, McMurray JJV, Pfeffer MA, Solomon SD. Renin Angiotensin–Aldosterone System Inhibitors in Patients with Covid-19. N Engl J Med 2020;382(17):1653-1659. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsr2005760
15. Mancia G, Rea F, Ludergnani M, Apolone G, Corrao G. Renin–Angiotensin–Aldosterone System blockers and the risk of Covid-19. N Engl J Med 2020; 382:2431-2440. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2006923
16. Brake SJ, Barnsley K, Lu W , McAlinden KD, Eapen MS, Sohal SS. Smoking upregulates Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 receptor: a potential adhesion site for novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). J. Clin. Med. 2020, 9, 841. doi:10.3390/jcm9030841
17. Vardavas CI, NikitaraK. COVID-19 and smoking: A systematic review of the evidence. Tob Induc Dis 2020;18(March):20. doi: 10.18332/tid/119324
18. The UN Refugee Agency. Operational portal refugee situations -Mediterranean route. 2020. Available at: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean; accessed on June 16, 2020
19. Spagnolo P, Balestro E, Aliberti S, et al. Pulmonary fibrosis secondary to COVID-19: a call to arms? Lancet Respir Med 2020; published online May 15. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30225-3.
20. Keith L, Van Ginneken E. Restricting access to the NHS for undocumented migrants is bad policy at high cost. BMJ 2015;350:h3056. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h3056
Published
2020-11-27
Keywords:
COVID-19, undocumented migrants, chronic diseases, drugs prescription
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How to Cite
Fiorini, G., Rigamonti, A. E., Galanopoulos, C., Adamoli, M., Ciriaco, E., Franchi, M., Genovese, E., Corrao, G., & Cella, S. G. (2020). Undocumented migrants during the Covid-19 pandemic: social conditions, clinical features and pharmacological treatment. Journal of Public Health Research, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2020.1852
Copyright (c) 2020 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
