Emerging infectious disease issues in international adoptions: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian influenza and measles.
OBJECTIVE
New emerging infections over the last few years demonstrate the potential for the introduction of epidemic illness through global migration. The increasing number of children adopted internationally (>20,000 in 2003, from the United States State Department) provides a unique situation for the spread of emerging infections through the combination of international travel by parents through areas where such infections may be contracted and the nature of the living conditions for many of the orphans being placed by this process.


RESULTS
The recent literature on three emerging infections--avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and measles--describes clinical aspects of the illnesses and their epidemiology. For avian influenza aspects of the agrarian economy in southeast Asia enabled the virus to reach the human population. The potential for further adaptation to people could set the stage for a new pandemic. SARS evolved in rural China and spread worldwide in one season with an approximate 10% mortality. Attention to public-health measures led to control of this new illness. Most recently, outbreaks of measles in Chinese orphanages have been documented. These findings demonstrate the potential of such infections to be transmitted during the process of international adoption, and in the case of measles the realization of this potential in recent reported cases from Chinese orphanages brought to the United States on commercial airlines.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians involved in international adoption and public-health officials assessing emerging infections need to work together in monitoring these issues.
Krilov
Leonard R
LR
Winthrop University Hospital, Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Mineola, NY 11501, USA. lkirilov@winthrop.org
D000293:Adolescent; D000300:Adoption; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009980:Influenza A virus; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission