Aid workers from IHH Hatay Crisis Desk provided health checks to 11,000 Syrian refugees staying in tent camps on Turkey-Syria border.
IHH has been working to meet needs of Syrian refugees since the first day of the popular uprising that began in March 2011 and to this end it has carried out a number of projects to provide health services to the affected Syrians.
The foundation provided health screenings to around 11,000 Syrian refugees, most of them women and children, who have crossed into Reyhanlı District of Hatay Province.
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The screenings by four-member medical team revealed that the Syrian refugees, who are living communally without bathroom toilet, and clean water facilities, are at the risk of diseases.
The days-long screenings also revealed cases of asthma, bronchitis, enteric infections, pneumonia, as well as contagious and deadly diseases such as hepatitis.
Husam Abdullatif, one of the doctors on IHH team, warned that the health checks revealed the health state of the refugees to be very serious and said the ailing refugees could only be treated if adequate amount of medicine and medical equipment is provided.
He also stressed that the risk of epidemic diseases spreading was quite high in communal accommodation places without hygiene, and urged authorities to urgently take necessary measures to prevent disease epidemics.
IHH team and the health team inspected the places where food was cooked for the refugees.
