The accident and emergency department as monitoring centre of human mobility: the Bangladesh experience

Departments (A&E-D) are privileged eyewitnesses of thehealth needs of a population that resides or transits in a given area. Through the experience acquired in Rome’s Umberto 1° Policlinico’s A&E, we report the experience gained the study results of admissions of citizens from Bangladesh are reported. Materials and Methods: we conducted a retrospective study of patients that attended the A&E-D from 2000 to 2014. We isolated records of patients from Bangladesh, noting age, gender, reason for admission and the final diagnosis. Results: data analysis showed 16,420 admittances due to of Bangladeshi citizens. With regard to considering the conditions that led Bangladeshi migrants to visit the A&E-D, it was noted that the diagnostic group mainly represented was “Injury and poisoning”, “Symptoms, signs and ill-defined morbid conditions”, “Diseases of the nervous system and sensory organs”, “Factors influencing the state of health and recourse to health services” and “Diseases of the respiratory system”. The group that presented highly interesting characteristics was the one relating to cardiovascular disease and among these, Coronary Syndromes. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that in the 130 cases considered the average age was 42 years +/- 8, much lower than usual in European countries. Discussion: the results on the types of diseases presented by Bangladeshi patients were discussed, and in particular the genetic causes, environmental interaction and the lifestyles that can justify the precocity of coronary disease in this population, according to studies reported in the literature. The results could have an impact on the organization of health care systems.