Update on the Coordinated Efforts of Looking After the Health Care Needs of Children and Young People Fleeing the Conflict Zone of Ukraine Presenting to European Emergency Departments-A Joint Statement of the European Society for Emergency Paediatrics and the European Academy of Paediatrics

Ruud G Nijman; Silvia Bressan; Julia Brandenberger; Davi Kaur; Kristina Keitel; Ian K Maconochie; Rianne Oostenbrink; Niccolo Parri; Itai Shavit; Ozlem Teksam; Roberto Velasco; Patrick van de Voorde; Liviana Da Dalt; Ann De Guchtenaere; Adamos A Hadjipanayis; Robert Ross Russell; Stefano Del Torso; Zsolt Bognar; Luigi Titomanlio

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.897803

Update on the Coordinated Efforts of Looking After the Health Care Needs of Children and Young People Fleeing the Conflict Zone of Ukraine Presenting to European Emergency Departments-A Joint Statement of the European Society for Emergency Paediatrics and the European Academy of Paediatrics

Front Pediatr. 2022 Apr 26:10:897803. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.897803. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ruud G Nijman^{1

2

3}, Silvia Bressan⁴, Julia Brandenberger^{5

6

7}, Davi Kaur⁸, Kristina Keitel^{7

9}, Ian K Maconochie^{1

3}, Rianne Oostenbrink¹⁰, Niccolo Parri¹¹, Itai Shavit¹², Ozlem Teksam¹³, Roberto Velasco¹⁴, Patrick van de Voorde¹⁵, Liviana Da Dalt⁴, Ann De Guchtenaere¹⁶, Adamos A Hadjipanayis¹⁷, Robert Ross Russell¹⁸, Stefano Del Torso¹⁹, Zsolt Bognar²⁰, Luigi Titomanlio^{21

22}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Medicine, Department of Paediatric Emergency Medicine, St. Mary's Hospital - Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust, London, United Kingdom.
² Section of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
³ Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom.
⁴ Division of Paediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Women's and Children's Health, University Hospital of Padova, Padova, Italy.
⁵ Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁶ Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁷ Division of Paediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, University Hospital of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁸ European Society for Emergency Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Department of General Paediatrics, Erasmus MC - Sophia, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
¹¹ Emergency Department & Trauma Center, Ospedale Paediatrico Meyer Firenze, Florence, Italy.
¹² Paediatric Emergency Department, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
¹³ Division of Paediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
¹⁴ Paediatric Emergency Unit, Hospital Universitario Río Hortega, Valladolid, Spain.
¹⁵ Federal Department of Health, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium.
¹⁶ Department of Paediatrics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
¹⁷ Department of Medicine, European University Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
¹⁸ Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
¹⁹ Primary Care Paediatrician, ChildCare Worldwide OdV, Padova, Italy.
²⁰ Department of Paediatric Emergency Medicine, Heim Pal National Paediatric Institute, Budapest, Hungary.
²¹ Paediatric Emergency Department, Hopital Universitaire Robert-Debre, Paris, France.
²² Université Paris Cité, INSERM UMR 1141, DHU Protect, Paris, France.

Abstract

This joint statement by the European Society for Emergency Paediatrics and European Academy of Paediatrics aims to highlight recommendations for dealing with refugee children and young people fleeing the Ukrainian war when presenting to emergency departments (EDs) across Europe. Children and young people might present, sometimes unaccompanied, with either ongoing complex health needs or illnesses, mental health issues, and injuries related to the war itself and the flight from it. Obstacles to providing urgent and emergency care include lack of clinical guidelines, language barriers, and lack of insight in previous medical history. Children with complex health needs are at high risk for complications and their continued access to specialist healthcare should be prioritized in resettlements programs. Ukraine has one of the lowest vaccination coverages in the Europe, and outbreaks of cholera, measles, diphtheria, poliomyelitis, and COVID-19 should be anticipated. In Ukraine, rates of multidrug resistant tuberculosis are high, making screening for this important. Urgent and emergency care facilities should also prepare for dealing with children with war-related injuries and mental health issues. Ukrainian refugee children and young people should be included in local educational systems and social activities at the earliest opportunity.

Keywords: emergency medicine; infectious diseases; mental health; pediatrics; post-traumatic stress disorder; refugee; social medicine; trauma.

Copyright © 2022 Nijman, Bressan, Brandenberger, Kaur, Keitel, Maconochie, Oostenbrink, Parri, Shavit, Teksam, Velasco, van de Voorde, Da Dalt, Guchtenaere, Hadjipanayis, Ross Russell, del Torso, Bognar and Titomanlio.