{"id":57242,"date":"2014-02-11T09:18:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T14:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=57242"},"modified":"2020-09-23T15:23:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T19:23:48","slug":"med-schools-global-health-conference-focuses-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/med-schools-global-health-conference-focuses-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Med School’s Global Health Conference Focuses On Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nearly 30,000 refugees enter Florida every year, more than every other state in the union, and they arrive with unique health problems including malnutrition, infectious diseases and mental anguish from violence and displacement. In an effort to better train physicians to help their refugee patients, 麻豆原创 College of Medicine<\/a> students focused on refugee health at their third annual Global Health Conference February 1.<\/p>\n More than 100 students from every Florida medical school, nursing students, healthcare professionals and medical students from as far away as Oklahoma participated in the event.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted something that encompasses both a global aspect, but also something that we can manage everyday here in America,\u201d said second-year 麻豆原创 medical student Scott Furer, who helped lead the event.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re going to be seeing these types of patients all the time in our future practices.\u201d<\/p>\n The keynote speaker was Dr. Rick Hodes, who has worked with Ethiopian refugees for more than 20 years. Through his work with the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Hodes has been in charge of the health of Ethiopians immigrating to Israel. Over the past two decades, he has served populations in countries like Zaire, Rwanda and Albania as they faced war, genocide and illness. Dr. Hodes detailed those experiences, \u00a0including a deadly Cholera outbreak in Rwanda, and the Goma-Zaire genocide that resulted in more than a half-million deaths. \u201cSometimes things are just unexpectedly crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you have to really be dedicated, you have to do the work, and you have to be able to work well with others.\u201d<\/p>\n A panel of actual refugees from around the globe described their experiences moving to the United States. Hailing from countries like Iraq, Cuba and Egypt, one of the panelists had only been in the United States for two weeks, after emigrating from Myanmar.<\/p>\n Many fled their home countries because war and political conflict threatened the safety of their families. \u201cThe place I came from is filled with violence, and it is unpleasant for many people,\u201d said Ali Al Shammarl, a recent refugee from Iraq.\u00a0 \u201cYou have your family, your job, and at one point, you have to decide to leave all of that behind and go into the darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n Their stories of pain \u2013 and hope through the assistance of Catholic Charities of Central Florida \u2013 were especially impactful to conference participants. \u201cI lot of people thought it was an eye-opening experience because they didn\u2019t know there were so many refugees around us,\u201d said second year 麻豆原创 medical student Neesha Patel, another conference leader. \u201cIt makes you think more about the people that you\u2019re treating. There could be something else going on in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n