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Focus on Health in Countries of Origin
Information on the prevailing medical situation in countries of origin has become increasingly important in asylum procedures in Europe. ECOI.NET in cooperation with the Belgian Projects of Médecins Sans Frontières developed a structured approach to ensure comprehensive coverage of the issue.
The Belgian Projects of Médecins Sans Frontières run ITHACA (Information on Treatment and Healthcare Accessibility in Countries of Origin, www.ithaca-eu.org), an information portal providing COI on medical issues, especially basic health care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, for 33 countries.
In a first step a list of sources providing high-quality COI on health issues was drawn up, expanding the scope of sources already covered by ITHACA. Hundreds of relevant documents were added to ECOI.NET.
Among these sources are the World Health Organization and its regional offices, Health Action International, the Health Resource Centre of the UK Department for International Development, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, Mental Disability Rights International, Médecins Sans Frontières or the UN Development Programme.
These sources mainly provide information on basic health care, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, mental health and diabetes. They include country health profiles as well as documents on availability, accessibility and affordability of medical treatment.
All information is accessible through the full text search, matching documents containing your medical search terms will be displayed as search results. Additional sources are available in the county-specific link sections and at the following link: http://www.ecoi.net/34.health.htm.
As a next step the information will be included in the health chapters of existing Topics & Issues files to improve its accessibility.