Adaptation of a community health volunteer strategy for the management of hypertension and diabetes and detection of COVID-19 disease
A programme for Syrian refugees in northern Jordan
Abstract
During humanitarian crises and severe epidemics, life-saving care for non-communicable disease must be sustained. A 2019 household survey found high rates of hypertension, diabetes or both in Syrian refugees aged 30 years and older in northern Jordan. It is known that patients with co-morbidities are at risk of severe COVID-19 disease and, as refugees, Syrians might be under-detected by current COVID-19 surveillance programmes. Furthermore, refugee health clinics were temporarily closed in March, 2020 because of COVID-19 control measures.
This article describes how an existing community health volunteer (CHV) strategy was modified during the pandemic to support non-communicable disease care in this population.
The CHV programme enabled continuous monitoring of refugees with hypertension and diabetes during severely disrupted clinical services as well as screening for COVID-19 symptoms. Community health volunteers can extend primary care for noncommunicable diseases to refugees and counter poor continuous access to care and service disruptions caused by protracted crises and severe epidemics.
This research was supported by the Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Programme
Citation
Ruwan Ratnayake, Fatma Rawashdeh, Mohammad Bani Hani, Saleem Zoubi, Muhammad Fawad, Raeda AbuAlRub, Nahla Al-Ali, Ravi Goyal, Khaldoun Al-Amire, Rowaida AlMaaitah, Parveen Parmar, Adaptation of a community health volunteer strategy for the management of hypertension and diabetes and detection of COVID-19 disease: a progamme for Syrian refugees in northern Jordan, The Lancet Global Health, Volume 9, Supplement 1, 2021, Page S14, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00122-4.