War trauma experience and behavioral screening of Bosnian refugee children resettled in Massachusetts.

The authors assessed war violence exposure and behavioral symptoms in Bosnian refugee children in Massachusetts and the utility of behavioral screening of refugees during the Refugee Health Assessment (RHA), required of newly arrived refugees. The study was a survey of 31 Bosnian refugee children in 1996 at the International Clinic of Boston Medical Center, the state's largest contracted provider of the RHA. Subjects were also offered referrals to appropriate mental health services. Sixty-eight percent experienced long-term separation from a parent. Eighty-one percent were directly exposed to armed combat. Seventy-one percent experienced the death of a close friend or relative. Fifty-two percent experienced economic deprivation. Families reported behavioral symptoms for 77% of children. Only one family expressed interest in psychosocial services of any kind. Large numbers of Bosnian refugees are likely to have experienced traumatic war violence and are at risk of behavioral symptoms. The RHA affords opportunities to screen for behavioral problems but not to intervene. Primary care providers and other clinicians should be aware of likely recurrences of symptoms in high-risk children such as these.

Infants and young children in orphanages: one view from pediatrics and child psychiatry.

A large body of medical knowledge exists that can inform the public policy debate as to whether the current needs and future life prospects of poor children could better be served in orphanages than by continuing safety net programs, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, and Supplemental Social Security Income, which maintain children in families. This special article explores a century of pediatric and child psychiatry research covering five areas of potential biologic and social risk to infants and young children in orphanage care: (1) infectious morbidity, (2) nutrition and growth, (3) cognitive development, (4) socioaffective development, and (5) physical and sexual abuse. These data demonstrate that infants and young children are uniquely vulnerable to the medical and psychosocial hazards of institutional care, negative effects that cannot be reduced to a tolerable level even with massive expenditure. Scientific experience consistently shows that, in the short term, orphanage placement puts young children at increased risk of serious infectious illness and delayed language development. In the long term, institutionalization in early childhood increases the likelihood that impoverished children will grow into psychiatrically impaired and economically unproductive adults.

The incidence of prenatal syphilis at the Boston City Hospital: a comparison across four decades.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the incidence and epidemiologic correlates of congenital syphilis at an inner-city Boston hospital, and draw comparisons with the situation at the same hospital 40 years ago. DESIGN: Chart review and comparison with data collected in 1951. SETTING: Maternity and pediatric services at Boston City Hospital. METHODS: A study conducted in 1951 on the maternity service of Boston City Hospital in which demographic data were collected on all women admitted in labor over a 5-month period was replicated. Serologic testing for syphilis was carried out on these women, and the demographic and medical correlates of positive maternal syphilis serology were examined. This study was repeated exactly 40 years later, using the cord blood screening for syphilis done routinely at delivery and a review of prenatal records. RESULTS: From a group made up largely of married white women in 1951, the study population shifted in 1991 to a group made up mostly of minority women, with 75% unmarried. In 1951, 24 patients were diagnosed with syphilis either before or during the pregnancy, giving a prevalence rate of 2.4%. In 1991, 25 of 647 women were diagnosed with syphilis, for a prevalence rate of 3.9%. The women with positive cord blood serologies had a higher rate of other sexually transmitted diseases and substance abuse. No symptomatic cases of congenital syphilis were seen in 1951 or in 1991, although at least 11 of the 26 infants born to mothers with positive serologies in 1991 received intravenous penicillin therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The continued prevalence of diagnosed syphilis in women at delivery reflects an inner-city epidemic of congenital syphilis that is tied to substance abuse, human immunodeficiency virus, and changing social patterns, as well to older problems of serologic screening, prenatal care, treatment failures, and maternal reinfection. It is essential that screening programs be maintained and improved in this high-risk population, and that infants born to mothers with positive serologies receive full and adequate treatment if there is any doubt at all about their infection status.

Therapy of bacterial sepsis, meningitis and otitis media in infants and children: 1992 poll of directors of programs in pediatric infectious diseases.

To determine current opinions among experts in pediatric infectious diseases for treatment of bacterial sepsis, meningitis and acute otitis media, we polled directors of training programs in January, 1992. Responses were received from 69 centers in the United States and Canada. For initial treatment of presumed bacterial meningitis, the third generation cephalosporins alone or combined with ampicillin have become drugs of choice in all age groups. Most infectious disease programs include dexamethasone in the management of presumed bacterial meningitis for children 2 months of age and older. Third generation cephalosporins are also drugs of choice for presumed sepsis: combined with ampicillin for infants 5 weeks of age; used alone for children 5 months and 12 years of age. Amoxicillin remains the preferred drug for initial treatment of acute otitis media. The combination of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid is favored in the setting of an increased proportion of beta-lactamase-producing bacterial pathogens. Comparison of these results with polls in 1987 and 1989 indicates a shift in recommendations of therapy of presumed bacterial sepsis and meningitis from ampicillin alone or combined with an aminoglycoside or chloramphenicol to use of a third generation cephalosporin alone or combined with ampicillin.