A refugee camp in the center of Europe: clinical characteristics of asylum seekers arriving in brussels

Background
In the summer of 2015, the exodus of Syrian war refugees and saturation of refugee camps in neighboring countries led to the influx of asylum-seekers in European countries, including Belgium.
This study aims to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of asylum-seekers that arrived in a huddled refugee camp, in the center of a well-developed country with all medical facilities.
Methods
Using a descriptive cross-sectional study design, physicians of Médecins du Monde prospectively registered age, gender, origin, medical complaints and diagnoses of all patients presenting to an erected Field Hospital in Brussels in September 2015. Diagnoses were post-hoc categorized according to the International Classification of Diseases.
Results
Of 4037 patients examined in the Field Hospital, 3907 were included and analyzed for this study. Over 11% of patients suffered from injuries, but these were outnumbered by the proportion of patients with respiratory (36%), dental (...