PROMISE Department, University of Palermo, Palermo (Italy).
Clinical Epidemiology Unit with Cancer Registry and Western Sicily Regional Reference Laboratory for COVID-19, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Policlinico 'Paolo Giaccone', Palermo (Italy).
Epidemiol Prev. 2024 Jul-Oct;48(4-5):69-74. doi: 10.19191/EP24.4-5.S1.115.
Refugees and migrants remain one of the most vulnerable people and the COVID-19 pandemic has posed additional challenges both in terms of increased risk of infection and death experienced, highlighting existing inequities in access to and utilization of health services, as underlined by World Health Organization in 2020 in the Health and Migration Programme. In the context of the Programme 'Epidemiological surveillance and control of COVID-19 in metropolitan urban areas and for the containment of the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in the migrant population in Italy', coordinated by the Italian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCM) and funded by the Italian Ministry of Health, an experimental epidemiological, virological, and molecular SARS-CoV-2 surveillance system addressed to migrant populations in Sicily through Mediterranean routes was implemented. To this end, a multidisciplinary network supported by a hub&spoke system of laboratories was established in Sicily Region (Southern Italy), using molecular and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques to identify different SARS-CoV-2 strains in relation to migration flows. Herein, the lesson learnt through this integrated surveillance model, that was in place from February 2021 till the end of the COVID-19 emergency in Italy, are reported. Overall, the data emphasized the need for enhancing molecular surveillance in the areas of the globe where testing and sequencing resources are limited. The epidemiological, virological, and molecular SARS-CoV-2 monitoring, targeted to the migrant population, may also provide a valuable experimental model.
难民和移民仍然是最脆弱的人群之一，新冠疫情给他们带来了额外的挑战，包括感染和死亡风险增加，凸显了在获得和利用卫生服务方面存在的不平等，世界卫生组织在 2020 年的卫生与移民计划中强调了这一点。在由意大利疾病预防控制中心（CCM）协调、意大利卫生部资助的“大都市地区新冠病毒病的流行病学监测和控制以及意大利移民人群中 SARS-CoV-2 的传播控制”计划中，建立了一个针对通过地中海路线进入西西里岛的移民人群的实验性流行病学、病毒学和分子 SARS-CoV-2 监测系统。为此，在意大利南部西西里岛地区建立了一个由一个中心辐射多个站点的多学科网络系统，利用分子和下一代测序（NGS）技术，根据移民流动情况识别不同的 SARS-CoV-2 株。在此，报告了从 2021 年 2 月到意大利新冠疫情紧急状态结束期间，通过这种综合监测模式获得的经验教训。总的来说，这些数据强调了在检测和测序资源有限的全球地区加强分子监测的必要性。针对移民人群的 SARS-CoV-2 的流行病学、病毒学和分子监测也提供了一个有价值的实验模型。
