3. Red Flags and flight-specific health needs
This chapter focuses on fight specific health needs and red-flags in short term settings like transit facilities or hot spots.
In the following, several tools will be presented to you to support your work in this area:
Here you can find the link to a short form (2 pages) for anamnesis/triage of red flags that refugees/migrants/asylum seekers can fill in themselves or health care providers can fill in for them. The short form is available in English, Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish, Croatian, Serbian, Georgian, and Macedonian. [https://www.medbox.org/anamnesis-screening/toolboxes/listing]
In addition, here you can find a table which was developed by the EUR-HUMAN project with red flag symptoms or signs (these red flags help in the triage process. Sometimes an acute referral will be need but even in those cases: stabilization of the critically ill patient is needed in the PHC Unit):
Red flag symptoms or signs | yes | no |
Shock or coma or hypoglycaemia | ||
Fever | ||
Cough | ||
Acute injury -trauma | ||
Haemorrhage | ||
Dyspnoea | ||
Respiratory rate (high-low) | ||
Short breathiness | ||
Pregnancy or carrying an infant | ||
Signs of dehydration | ||
Signs of starvation | ||
Delirium | ||
Suicidal ideation/ thoughts of self-harm | ||
Disabled/handicapped | ||
Diarrhea | ||
Vomiting | ||
Scabies | ||
Burns or frostbites | ||
Unaccompanied children | ||
Wet clothes- teared apart | ||
Bruises –signs of surgery (esp. children) |
The table was taken from the Primary health care plan for refugees and other migrants developed by the University of Crete, Greece, within the EUR-HUMAN project.
Based on deliverable 4.2 of the project EUR-HUMAN, Set of guidelines, guidance, training and health promotion materials for primary care for newly arrived migrants including refugees, the following websites are recommended:
On the following MEDBOX Clinical Guideline webpage you can find information and clinical guidelines on many diseases [https://www.medbox.org/clinical-guidelines/listing]
Since it is of major importance that the patient has knowledge about her or his disease, particularly in acute situations, in the following there is a helpful link to patient information on several diseases/issues in English, Arabic, German, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. [http://www.patienten-information.de/kurzinformationen/uebersetzungen]
If you are a member of the Austrian Society for General Practitioners (ÖGAM), then, you also have free access to the EBM guidelines for General Practice. [https://oegam.at/artikel/leitlinien-allgemeinpraxis-entstehung-anwendung-anforderungen]