Doctors warn: African migrants are ‘health time bomb’
Many asylum seekers carrying communicable diseases are released from hospitals without proper treatment
Prominent physicians are warning that dozens of African asylum-seekers suffering from communicable diseases such as measles, tuberculosis, and chicken pox could cause an outbreak of illnesses in the Tel Aviv area.
Professor Pini Halpern, the director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Ichilov General Hospital in Tel Aviv, warned in Tuesday’s Yedioth Ahronoth: “We are speaking of a real health time bomb.”
Tuberculosis, a dangerous and extremely contagious disease, had been largely eradicated in the Western world through vaccination, but is widespread in developing countries. The World Health Organization has noted in reports over the past decade that migrants from developing countries are spreading TB in the developed world, and the disease is once again a heath threat.
“Our greatest frustration is our inability to give them [the migrants] optimal medical care,” said Halpern, explaining that by the time test results are back from the lab, most of the migrants who seek care, even those suffering from these diseases, are back on the streets.
Professor Gabi Barbash, the director of Ichilov General Hospital, told the newspaper: “What has happened is that the government fell asleep at the wheel — because the writing has long been on the wall… only the hospitals are bearing the burden.”
In Israel there are some 60,000 illegal migrants from African countries, most of whom enter the country through the Sinai desert. On Sunday Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman said that the government is seeking to resettle the refugees, either through repatriation or deportation to a third country.
