Access to emergency departments for acute events and identification of sickle cell disease in refugees

Throughout the last decade, thousands of refugees arrived on a daily basis at the Mediterranean coast of Southern European countries. Because this influx is not expected to slow down, the development of national and European strategies is required to ensure appropriate and accessible health care to these vulnerable populations.1,2 The vast majority of these migrants come from areas in which sickle cell disease (SCD) and other hemoglobinopathies are highly prevalent. Limited data are available on the burden of these disorders in populations of refugees. Here, we present 2 pieces of evidence supporting the need for specific strategies for the early identification of SCD in refugees. First, we carried out a retrospective study of data collected from 2014 to 2017 across 13 Italian reference centers for SCD and hemoglobinopathies. The primary outcome of this study was to identify events associated with the new diagnosis of SCD in refugees; the secondary outcome was to evaluate the impact of hemoglobinopathies in refugees coming from endemic areas.