Threats to health security vs. the issue of refugees

Abstract

Health security is an element of national security in its general
meaning. The extensive migratory movements observed in recent years,
despite the introduction of legal regulations and medical supervision, carry
the threat of diseases that have not been recognized in Europe for a long
time. Data provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and
Control oblige medical services to be fully prepared to be confronted with
drug-resistant tuberculosis, cholera, dysentery or dengue. The rules of medical
care introduced for refugees and their families, the need to conduct
preliminary tests and isolate the suspected of transmitting infectious diseases,
does not give the expected results. A number of registered refugees bypass
centres prepared to receive them, creating a real epidemic threat. The volume
of incurred costs of this procedure significantly burdens the budgets of
many European countries.