The Health Problems at the Landing of the Migrants in Lampedusa from 2011 to June 2019: Analysis of the Data and Revision of the Literature

This is a study on the migrants hospitalized from 2011 to June 2019, coming from Lampedusa, a small isle in the Mediterranean Sea, called Europe’s door, where they arrive along the Sicily Canal Central Route. The physicians of 118 emergency service required the hospitalization for 775 patients (440 men and 335 women) in 6 Sicilian hospitals, mainly in Palermo: 203 in 2011; 62 in 2012; 95 in 2013; 45 in 2014, 184 in 2015; 72 in 2016, 73 in 2017, 35 in 2018, and 6 from January to June 2019. The mean age was 25 years; underage children were about 10%. Their diseases were very similar over the years, irrespective of their country provenance; 227 patients were hospitalized for obstetrics-gynecology problems, 167 infectious diseases (21 TB), 125 orthopedic, 92 intensive care, 89 medicine-cardiology, and 75 for dermatology lesions and burns. In decreasing order, the more frequent provenances were West, Horn, and North Africa and Middle East. The knowledge of the health problems is very important to study of the best practices to activate for these patients. First, help the migrants while they are in the sea, to allow the reduction of the serious health problems, related to the hardships and duration of the long journey, main risk factors for their hospitalization; second, optimize the moment of landing of migrants, for disseminating information on the basic principles of health education. In relation to their young age, these migrants have the mission of perpetuating their ethnic groups, at risk of annihilation by the war violence.