title: A refugee camp in the centre of Europe: clinical characteristics of asylum seekers arriving in Brussels.
abstract: In the summer of 2015, the exodus of Syrian war refugees and saturation of refugee camps in neighbouring 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 who arrived in a huddled refugee camp, in the centre of a well-developed country with all medical facilities.
  
  
  
  Using a descriptive cross-sectional study design, physicians of Médecins du Monde prospectively registered age, gender, origin, medical symptoms and diagnoses of all patients presenting to an erected field hospital in Brussels in September 2015. Diagnoses were post hoc categorised according to the International Classification of Diseases.
  
  
  
  Of 4037 patients examined in the field hospital, 3907 were included and analysed for this study. Over 11% of patients suffered from injuries, but these were outnumbered by the proportion of patients with respiratory (36%), dental (9%), skin (9%) and digestive (8%) diagnoses. More than 49% had features of infections at the time of the consultation.
  
  
  
  Asylum seekers arriving in a refugee camp in Brussels after a long and hazardous journey suffer mostly from respiratory, dental, skin and digestive diseases. Still, one in seven suffers from injury. These findings, consistent with other reports, should be anticipated when composing emergency medical teams and interagency emergency health or similar kits to be used in a field hospital, even in a Western European country.
  
  
  
  ISRCTN13523620, Results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.|Research Group on Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Gerlant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: van Berlaer
authors.affiliation: Medical Department, Operations Department, Médecins du Monde/Doctors of the World Belgium, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Francisca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bohle Carbonell
authors.affiliation: Medical Department, Operations Department, Médecins du Monde/Doctors of the World Belgium, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sofie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Manantsoa
authors.affiliation: Medical Department, Operations Department, Médecins du Monde/Doctors of the World Belgium, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: de Béthune
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Biostatistics and Medical Informatics Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Buyl
authors.affiliation: Research Group on Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Debacker
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.|Research Group on Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ives
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hubloue
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001530:Belgium; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007239:Infections / Q000145:classification* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008016:Life Change Events; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008877:Middle East; D000073017:Refugee Camps; D012036:Refugees / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY MEDICINE; EPIDEMIOLOGY; PRIMARY CARE; PUBLIC HEALTH