Healthcare workers and humanitarian organisations warn that South Africa’s anti-migrant campaign – and the disruption of their access to healthcare and any interrupted chronic health treatment – poses huge risks to broader public health as well, reports Health-e News.
The alert follows the 30 June deadline set by anti-migrant groups for undocumented migrants to leave South Africa, the subsequent exodus of foreigners from this country, and the fears of non-South Africans still living in the country.
Humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its teams are seeing nationwide patterns of patients being turned away from healthcare services or being too afraid to access them.
Claire Waterhouse, MSF Southern Africa director of Advocacy and Analysis, told Health-e News that their teams in Musina recently encountered two people with active TB who had been chased away from a clinic.
“Both of those patients have now developed drug-resistant TB, which is extremely concerning for our public health system as a whole,” she said, adding that an emergency humanitarian response had been launched in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and at the Musina-Beitbridge border in recent weeks.
Interrupted treatment
Health-e News recently reported that Zimbabwean migrants living in Louis Trichardt in Limpopo were being turned away from clinics or warned that their latest collection of chronic medication would be their last.
Several migrants with legal permits to live in South Africa, said they had been questioned about their documents and warned that future treatment was no longer guaranteed.
“My concern is that I am legally in the country. If I am denied access to medication, where am I supposed to get treatment?” said a woman living in Louis Trichardt.
Waterhouse said they are receiving similar reports from their teams across South Africa.
“Many people we are seeing are afraid to seek healthcare because of the threat of violence at clinics – they have been away from treatment and access for a while. This really has a detrimental effect on their healthcare as well as public healthcare as a whole.”
She added that they were particularly concerned about interruptions to healthcare for patients on chronic medication and vulnerable groups.
“We are very worried about chronic patients, people who have HIV, TB, diabetes and high blood pressure, and not being on their medication when they desperately need that in their daily lives.
“Diseases do not understand passports or borders. Diseases can affect anyone. It is not just individuals affected by this. We are also concerned about pregnant women and young children who have not been getting their immunisations or the care they need during pregnancy.”
Waterhouse believes the consequences reach far beyond the people directly
Consequences
Healthcare Workers Against Xenophobia (HCWAX), a coalition of doctors, nurses, researchers and public health practitioners, has urged healthcare workers to respond to the humanitarian needs of displaced migrants.
The coalition said reports of migrants delaying or avoiding healthcare are becoming increasingly common as fear spreads through migrant communities. It warned that interruptions to HIV and TB treatment, antenatal care, childhood immunisations and chronic medication could affect more than individual patients.
“When people are too afraid to visit clinics or continue treatment, the consequences extend beyond migrants,” said the coalition’s Dr Samah El-Boraei.
“Interruptions to care increase health risks for entire communities and place additional pressure on an already strained public health system.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SA doctors rally against xenophobia and urge healthcare for all
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