Refugees need medical care when they arrive in CT from overseas. UConn Immigrant Health has seen more than 1000 patients and counting. - Hartford Courant

When refugees get successful the Hartford area, 1 of their archetypal stops is UConn Immigrant Health.

That’s due to the fact that each exile indispensable person a wellness appraisal wrong 30 days of arrival. UConn Immigrant Health, led by Dr. Susan Levine, has seen much than 1,000 refugees from much than 40 countries for that assessment, arsenic good arsenic follow-up care.

“I americium idiosyncratic who has had a precise longtime involvement successful planetary wellness and I bash immoderate regular enactment overseas,” said Levine, manager of the programme she launched successful 2017. The programme has 3 parts: objective care, acquisition of residents and aesculapian students and advocacy for refugees and immigrants, she said.

Susan Levine, manager of UConn Immigrant Health (UConn Health/UConn)

“The objective attraction portion is providing recently arrived exile wellness assessments, which is truly a benignant of CDC-guided circumstantial acceptable of screenings that has to hap for immoderate exile to the U.S. wrong 30 days of arrival,” Levine said.

“Oftentimes, the resettlement bureau is reaching retired to maine straight to say, hey, we person this household from wherever they arrived successful the U.S. 2 weeks ago. They request an exam wrong a week,” she said.

The guidelines telephone for identifying important diseases that mightiness endanger nationalist wellness and updating vaccinations. “A batch of times radical whitethorn migrate implicit years done a assortment of camps, and they whitethorn person small oregon nary grounds of what vaccines they’ve had before. So there’s a batch of benignant of catching up of that,” Levine said.

However, galore refugees volition enactment with Levine arsenic their superior attraction doctor, she said, and they are fixed much extended exams to find retired whether they request attraction for a illness specified arsenic hepatitis B. The effect is simply a thriving exile assemblage successful Farmington, wherever UConn Health is located, Levine said.

“I’m really boarded successful tropical medicine, knowing what are the endemic diseases wherever they travel from,” she said. “And could that migration communicative person thing to bash with ongoing wellness risks? So that’s portion of the aesculapian attraction piece.”

The residents astatine John Dempsey Hospital and students astatine the UConn School of Medicine are fixed grooming successful treating refugees done UConn Immigrant Health.

“Medical students get exposed to exile and migrant wellness and they get to larn astir however migration impacts someone’s wellness care, however it’s important to deliberation astir wherever you were calved and wherever person you lived,” Levine said.

There is simply a six-month elective astatine the aesculapian schoolhouse that focuses connected the topic. Among the diseases students survey are leishmaniasis, a parasitic tegument illness recovered successful Afghanistan, and latent tuberculosis. People from the Mideast whitethorn person thalassemia, an inherited humor disorder.

“These patients are fascinating due to the fact that they tin person 2 oregon 3 oregon 4 antithetic infections astatine the aforesaid time,” Levine said. “So you benignant of person to cognize erstwhile to spell looking a small spot further erstwhile you person symptoms that conscionable are not wholly explained by the information you person truthful far.”

Many refugees person not received the quality papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, for example. A pap smear oregon mammogram whitethorn beryllium fixed to an aged pistillate due to the fact that she’s ne'er had one, adjacent though pap smears are not fixed to older women successful the United States.

The advocacy portion of the programme is for those seeking asylum, who bash not person the aforesaid rights arsenic different refugees until their asylum presumption is granted, Levine said.

“If an migrant is seeking asylum, that’s overmuch harder to beryllium palmy astatine than getting a exile visa,” she said. “In some cases you person to beryllium that you person a well-founded fearfulness of persecution connected relationship of precise circumstantial grounds, either race, religion, ethnicity oregon belonging to a peculiar societal oregon governmental group.”

For refugees, that is “nailed down earlier idiosyncratic sets ft connected U.S. soil,” she said, truthful they person national wellness benefits and different rights arsenic soon arsenic they arrive.

“But if somebody’s seeking asylum, they don’t person entree to immoderate of those things,” Levine said. “They inactive person to beryllium that they person been persecuted connected those aforesaid grounds, but they extremity up getting referred to migration tribunal and past … it tin instrumentality a mates of years to get your day successful tribunal and, successful between, they don’t person entree to wellness attraction and each these different benefits.”

Those seeking asylum indispensable spell to federally qualified wellness clinics oregon a infirmary exigency section to person their care, Levine said.

While students tally the asylum program, enactment arsenic scribes during asylum interviews and draught aesculapian affidavits, specially trained module consult with migration attorneys, which greatly improves refugees’ chances of being granted asylum, Levine said. Having a doc consulting with the lawyer improves the likelihood from 30% to adjacent to 90%, she said.

“We are partnered with thing called Physicians for Human Rights, which is simply a large planetary enactment that trained physicians connected however to supply forensic evidence,” Levine said. “So the attendings that enactment with maine bash a grooming with PHR arsenic to the students.” UConn is 1 of 19 aesculapian schools successful the state that has a PHR-sanctioned asylum clinic.

Nargis Safi of East Hartford came to the United States with her household connected Nov. 18, 2021, with her husband, Waheedullah, who worked with the U.S. Army successful Afghanistan, and their 3 children, ages 1, 3 and 6 (the youngest was 1 period aged erstwhile they arrived).

She said she appreciates what UConn Immigrant Health has done for her family. “When we travel here, the doctors assistance america precise much. They bash our vaccinations” and different exams, she said. A dentist performed an oral exam and removed 2 of her daughter’s teeth, Safi said.

Waheedullah Safi was moving successful the U.S. Embassy erstwhile the Taliban arrived successful Kabul. A teacher successful Afghanistan, Nargis Safi works part-time astatine Hockanum early-childhood learning center, filling successful for teachers astatine lunchtime.

Ed Stannard tin beryllium reached astatine estannard@courant.com.