The Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini has said that a high percentage of cases of tuberculosis and scabies have been registered among migrants. This claim was disputed by pediatrician Marcello Lanari, who heads the emergency pediatric unit of the Policlinico Sant'Orsola in Bologna. The pediatrician said the diseases "are linked to poverty and are not brought by migrants."
There have never been so many people on the move worldwide, and they must be guaranteed healthcare, says the World Health Organization (WHO). This is why they just approved a five-year global action plan for migrant health.
Officials working for international organizations and institutions have visited Tunisia's border areas with Libya to evaluate the resources available ahead of the potential arrival of refugees fleeing armed clashes in Libya.
Nearly three weeks since fighting began near the Libyan capital Tripoli, the United Nations warned that refugees and migrants remain exposed to clashes. According to the UN's refugee agency, some 3,600 of them are trapped in detention centers near the frontline.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has denounced the deteriorating conditions in Libyan detention centers in Misrata and Kohms due to a 'sharp increase' in the number of people held, including pregnant women and children. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported violence and deaths related to fighting in Tripoli.
Migrants arriving in Europe might assume that they are coming to countries with high standards of health care, and this is often true. But the reality, the World Health Organization says, is that migrants' access to treatment in these systems can be limited. Pregnant women migrants and refugees - and their babies - also continue to face much greater health risks than other women in Europe.
UNICEF has sent 4.7 million vaccines to Libya to protect children at risk of disease. Measles and polio are the main preventable diseases threatening children, among them many refugees, in the conflict-torn country.