Refugee Health
Refugees are often disproportionally affected by infectious disease mainly because of their geographic origin, ethnicity, conditions at a refugee camp, as well as personal, physical, and psychological conditions, either pre-existing or acquired while they fled their homeland and made way to a camp. The Federal Refugee Act of 1980 recommends that all new refugees arriving in the United States receive a comprehensive health assessment. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) housed in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is charged with funding and oversight of this effort. Three medical interventions are either required or recommended in order to contain infectious disease and reduce the medical burdens that may be associated with refugee resettlement. First is a mandatory overseas screening for all refugees and immigrants, then a recommended domestic screening for refugees, and finally a required medical component to the Adjustment of Status (Green Card) process.
Read more about Refugee Health: Overseas Screening, Domestic Screening, Common Health Concerns in Refugees, Adjustment of Status Exam, Sample State Programs
Famous quotes containing the words refugee and/or health:
“The refugee uncertain at the door
You make at home; deftly you steady
The drunk clambering on his undulant floor.”
—John Frederick Nims (b. 1913)
“He had had much experience of physicians, and said, “the only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not.””
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)