Migrant health in Ceuta, Spain: infection is the consequence, not the cause

Migrant health in Ceuta, Spain: infection is the consequence, not the cause

Thousands of migrants are barely surviving on the streets of Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, exposed to the elements amid a humanitarian crisis. In this setting, María João Forjaz, president of the Spanish epidemiologists' association, has pointed out that their health problems are not contagious: dehydration, malnutrition, wounds and post-traumatic stress. The warning comes after Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the Popular Party, predicted "a public health crisis" and attributed cases of tuberculosis and scabies to these people. The clash is not medical, it's political.

Tuberculosis doesn't arise spontaneously, but it spreads wherever there is misery

On one side are those who claim that migrants themselves bring the diseases: the tuberculosis bacillus doesn't appear out of thin air, they argue, and Ceuta becomes a presumed outbreak focus. On the other are those who remind us that tuberculosis and scabies are diseases of poverty: they spread where hygiene is lacking, where there is overcrowding and no access to primary care. The evidence cited by Forjaz indicates that the conditions migrants arrive with are not infectious. The problem is what they find when they get there: subhuman conditions.

Public health or political weapon: exploiting the crisis

The discussion quickly turns to strategy. Some analysts see in Feijóo's remarks an attempt to turn the humanitarian crisis into a public order problem. Others denounce that the opposing narrative whitewashes mass immigration. In the middle are the migrants, homeless, with the healthcare safety net broken. The pharmaceutical industry, meanwhile, applauds: more diseases, more business.

The uncomfortable question is not whether they bring diseases across the border, but what the authorities are willing to do for the people who are already here, barely surviving on the street. The clinical evidence is clear: none of the conditions Forjaz describes is contagious. The political diagnosis, however, remains open.