The EthnoMed site contains information about cultural beliefs, medical issues and other related issues pertinent to the health care of recent immigrants to Seattle or the US, many of whom are refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the world.

Can't find what you want? Try using the Search within EthnoMed using a word or topic.

February 2009:  International Rescue Committee Fact Sheets about the health of refugees from the following countries:

Bhutan     Burma     Ethiopia & Eritrea     Iraq

Recent Featured Materials or Links on EthnoMed

• Cambodian Shop Around Program  
  A pilot project promoting healthy eating and dietary management of diabetes in Seattle's Cambodian Community.  This article presents information about the prevalence of diabetes and other health conditions affecting Cambodian Americans, along with considerations of some historical and environmental factors that may influence Cambodian American diet.



• Perinatal Profile for Patients from Somalia
  Providers can improve obstetrical outcomes and provide culturally appropriate care to women from Somalia if familiar with the cultural values and historical experiences of women and their families.
  
  
• Medication Non-Adherence Issues with Refugee and Immigrant Patients
  Medication non-adherence is a prevailing problem throughout the world.



• Hyperlipidemia: Diet, Education, and Health Promotion for the Somali Refugee Population
  In Somalia, chronic conditions such as hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are often not tested for and consequently are not well documented and may have gone undetected and/or untreated. 



• My Baby Refuses to Eat!  Overfeeding of Somali Infants
  Clinical observations about patterns of overfeeding as a common antecedent leading to oral aversion and failure to thrive.



• Cancer Survivorship:  
  A paragraph about surviving cancer in 10 languages.



• Karen: 
  The Karen, pronounced Kah- Ren (emphasis on the second syllable), are indigenous to the Thailand-Burma border region in Southeast Asia and are one of the many ethnic groups in Burma. There are Karen people throughout the country presently known as Burma or Myanmar.  Nearly half the population in Burma's Delta that was hit by the cyclone in May 2008 was ethnic Karen. Many of the new arrivals in the U.S. have family in this area and it must be very difficult for them not to be able to help or contact their family members in the country.