INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND HEALTH

People are increasingly on the move for political, humanitarian, economic and environmental reasons. This population mobility has health and human rights implications both for migrants and for those they leave behind. Migrants often face serious obstacles to good health due to discrimination, language and cultural barriers, legal status, and other economic and social difficulties. At the same time, migration policies may have significant public health consequences. In many parts of the world, the migration of health professionals can be a serious impediment to the delivery of health care in countries of origin. Approximately 175 million people, or 2,9% of the world's population, currently live temporarily or permanently outside their countries of origin.

 

HEALTH IS A HUMAN RIGHT

The WHO Constitution states that "The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political, economic or social condition".

On two occasions, in 1970 and 1977, the World Health Assembly has proclaimed that "Health is a human right", and the same affirmation was made by the International Conference on Primary Health Care, held in 1978 in Alma-Ata under the joint auspices of WHO and UNICEF. In accordance with WHO, health is not merely the absence of disease, but "A state of complete physical. mental and social well-being".

 

TO LIVE WITH DERMATOLOGIC DISEASES

We know that skin diseases often involve not only the traditional functions of the skin as protection and thermoregulation, but they can cause dramatic psychological problems related to the skin as an organ of communication (leprosy, vitiligo, psoriasis, lupus, cancers).

The skin diseases are enormously variable in duration, extent and common morphological aspects. Several important factors are currently accepted as inducers of new episodes of skin diseases or in exacerbating the pre-existing diseases: endocrine, metabolic, psychogenic factors, trauma, infections, sunlight, drugs, alcohol, smoking and poverty.

There is evidence that the severity of cutaneous diseases may depend on prior stress, and environmental factors such as poverty. It is possible that psychological stress may limit the effectiveness of treatment, leading to worsening conditions of the diseases.

Some skin diseases can affect the quality of lire of the patients mainly because many different factors could aggravate their symptoms. In fact, many patients suffering from evidently disfigurating conditions end up losing their jobs and are forced to search far alternative income resources. Unfortunately, the therapeutic methods available for treating some of these diseases are extremely expensive and therefore not easily accessible to patients in the developing countries. For these reasons the patient is forced to treat himself/herself at home, being unable to afford expensive medications and the cost of health care. Confronted with a life denied of dignity, the patient is forced to live with a disability. In view of what has been said so far, the dermatological patients of the southern hemisphere will suffer even more dramatic effects of the diseases, caused by the scarcity of clinical, therapeutic and social support.

 

CONCLUSIONS

If, according to WHO, health is a fundamental human right, this concept should be particularly true for poor and marginalized people in need of health and in our case of dermatological care. Moreover should we limit treatment to the privileged North of the world and deny it to the South? What should we do to guarantee diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases as a fundamental human right? The gap of the health conditions between north and south of the world has increased, but at the same lime there is evidence of an unacceptable difference in the level of health between poor and rich people living in the rich countries as Europe.

 

REFERENCE

Erio Ziglio, Rogerio Barbosa, Yves Charpak and Steve Tumer "Health systems confront poverty ", Public Health Case Studies No.1 Edited by Regional Office far Europe of the World Health Organization 2003 .