Abstract
Background: After the 12th January earthquake, leaving lots of Haitian families homeless, wounded or dead, many Haitian children were driven into refugee-camps. The Belgian First Aid and Support Team (B-FAST) arrived among the first international medical teams, and provided acute care to about 7000 patients during the first weeks. During the same period, five medical “out-of-hospital missions” into refugee camps were performed.
Methods: We prospectivily noted all complaints of the patients that presented to our improvised medical field post.
Results: A total of 1800 patients were seen, but only from 1233 the complete form was filled out. Almost 40% of these patients were minors. Average age was 7.65 years (range 1 day to 18 years), 53% were girls.
Chief complaints were: cough (41.4%), stomachache (30.13%) and diarrhea (22.17%), followed by headache (14.23%), fever (12.97% but only objectified in 21% of those complaining), vomiting (10.88%), stuffy nose (10.04%) and anorexia (10%). Less common complaints included vertigo (7.95%), scabies (6.69%), eruption (5.44%) and itching (2.93%), eye (5.02%) and vaginal infections (4.60%), sore throat and earache (each 2.93%), running nose (1.26%), palpitations (1.26%) and general weakness (1.26%).
Conclusion: Besides classical complaints caused by the earthquake itself (wound, fractures and bad healing), and besides the typical complaints awaited in the first weeks after such an event (epidemics, diarrhea), we noted a vast amount of respiratory problems in the Haitian children residing in refugeecamps. While composing WHO-kits to assist medics to provide help on the spot after an earthquake, this should be taken into concern.
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Van Berlaer, G., Staes, T., Danschutter, D. et al. 738 Physical Complaints of Haitian Children in Refugee Camps Two Weeks After the 2010 Earthquake. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 374 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00738
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00738
