MEDICAL CONDITION AND IMMUNISATION STATUS OF CHINESE
ADOPTEES COMPARED TO CHILDREN ADOPTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES
Schulpen
TWJ
University Medical Centre Utrecht, the Netherlands
International
adoption of children has become common practice all over the world in the
last three decades. About 20,000 children enter Western Europe and North
America each year. In the Netherlands about 900 children are adopted from
abroad each year. Around 60 % of the adoptees have one or more medical
problems, like intestinal infections and parasites, anemia, hepatitis B, lues and tuberculosis.
The last ten years the health condition of internationally adopted children
has much improved. In 1990 adoption of children from the People��s Republic
of China became possible and at present nearly one third of all newly
adopted children in the Netherlands are from China. The health condition of
these children is much better compared to children from other countries.
Data comparing the different continents will be shown.
The
immunisation status was investigated by measuring antibody titres to
diphtheria, tetanus and poliovirus 1, 2 and 3 of 98 Chinese children and 35
children from other countries who were medically screened at the adoption
clinic of the Centre for Migration and Child Health in Utrecht and who
carried a vaccination document with three or more vaccination data for
diphtheria, tetanus and oral polio vaccine.
Approximately
60% of the Chinese children ( 71 % of the other adoptees) were fully
protected against tetanus and diphteria, 25% ( 26 %) were marginally
protected while around 15% ( 3 % ) were not protected at all. For OPV between 25 and 30% of the
Chinese children
( 6 and 8 % for adoptees from other countries ) lack protective
antibody titres against polio virus type 1 and 3.
The
reasons for the discrepancy between vaccination documents and the actual
serological status are not clear and further research is needed.