The mother's worries are written all over her face in the UKBB waiting area. She understands that much: Her daughter has to go to hospital today. This is what a doctor at the practice has ordered. Why her daughter has to go to hospital, however, remains a mystery to the young woman from Syria. „What's wrong with her? She's fine, isn't she?“ she asks herself again and again. Once again, she reaches into her handbag. The money is still there. „I hope it's enough for the doctor,“ she mumbles quietly to herself.

„Situations like this can sometimes occur in migration medicine,“ says Dr Julia Brandenberger. She conducts research in this field at the UKBB, where a migration medicine consultation has been running since 2015 and a team has been set up to care for these children and adolescents.

Misconceptions and prejudices

Initially, one of the aims was to efficiently manage the increasing demand for emergency treatment of refugee children in cooperation with the reception and procedure centres and paediatricians. But even after four years, the numbers in the migrant medical consultations are not decreasing, as there is still a lot to do.

Today, the focus is increasingly on preventative measures and health promotion. „Investing here is extremely worthwhile,“ says Brandenberger. Depending on their country of origin, children may have grown up with and been confronted with completely different health concepts than those that seem self-evident here. Dental hygiene, vaccinations, the rational use of antibiotics - some families first have to familiarise themselves with these things. „Without migrant medicine, many children would fall through the cracks,“ says Brandenberger.

«On the run, children and families were sometimes betrayed or tortured by medical staff.»

One of the biggest challenges is communication. Because where communication is not possible, it is not only difficult to provide treatment, but the necessary trust is also lacking. This is why interpreters are so important, as the UKBB is able to utilise thanks to third-party funding. „During their flight, some children and families have experienced terrible things and were sometimes betrayed or tortured by medical staff. We have to make sure that the children and their parents realise that we have their best interests at heart and that they can decide for themselves what should be done.“

However, Brandenberger does not only encounter misconceptions and fears on the part of migrants. Claims such as that refugees would bring in diseases and endanger the local population are still widespread. „Our studies show this: In terms of the most common infectious diseases, asylum-seeking children who arrive in Switzerland do not differ greatly from children who grow up here. In some cases, it's even the other way round,“ says Brandenberger, „asylum-seeking children are affected by local pathogens that they are not used to at home.“

Long distances and a lack of standards

Another major challenge in migration medicine is the continuity of treatment. By the time a refugee family and their children arrive at the migration consultation centre in Basel from their home country, they have already received medical treatment in different places along the way. But the information about what was done where often falls by the wayside. „From an ethical point of view, it is unacceptable for someone to receive the same vaccination several times, for example, simply because the information is not documented efficiently,“ says Brandenberger. She hopes that corresponding standards will one day be established throughout Europe.

There is still a long way to go before politicians create the basis for this. The young mother from Syria in the UKBB waiting area, on the other hand, has now been treated. The uncertainty has given way to great relief. Her daughter is not seriously ill, the interpreter translated for her. Blood tests were carried out and she was immunised.

The mother is amazed: «At first I was nervous: why do I have to go to the big hospital, is my child so ill? How am I supposed to communicate? But then the interpreter came and explained everything to me together with the doctor. My daughter is healthy and everyone treated me with respect, I'm very happy!» Next time it will be much easier for her to come to the UKBB.