Post-international adoption medical follow-up at the Angers university hospital between 2009 and 2012.
OBJECTIVE
The authors had for aim to describe infectious diseases in internationally adopted child at arrival in France.


METHODS
We made a retrospective descriptive study of the children's files having undergone medical check-ups between 2009 and 2012.


RESULTS
One hundred and eighty-two files were included: 80% of the children came from Africa, 15% from South America and the Caribbean, 3% from Asia, and 2% from Europe. Forty-three percent were diagnosed with tinea. HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis blood tests were all negative. Six children presented with acute or chronic hepatitis B, another 5 children with acute hepatitis A. One blood test for cysticercosis was positive. Two children presented with malaria. 58% of the children carried an intestinal parasite; the most prevalent was Giardia duodenalis. Bacteriological stool culture was positive for 17 children, for 9 with an antibiotic resistant bacterium. Twenty-seven children had a positive virological stool culture, 2 for a poliovirus.


CONCLUSIONS
A systematic infectious check-up should be performed for a child adopted internationally when he/she arrives in France. This allows diagnosing diseases requiring an emergency treatment, or asymptomatic but severe diseases when chronic. Some blood tests must be double-checked when the child arrives, because of possible false negative initial tests results in the country of origin. Screening, early treatment, and implementing prophylaxis can decrease the risk of transmission to relatives. It also allows monitoring the antimicrobial resistance of some pathogens and the reintroduction of the poliovirus in France.
Unité fonctionnelle de médecine des voyages, laboratoire de parasitologie-mycologie, centre hospitalier universitaire, 4, rue Larrey, 49933 Angers cedex 9, France.
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Blanchi
Unité fonctionnelle de médecine des voyages, laboratoire de parasitologie-mycologie, centre hospitalier universitaire, 4, rue Larrey, 49933 Angers cedex 9, France.
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Chabasse
Service des maladies infectieuses et tropicales, centre hospitalier universitaire, 4, rue Larrey, 49933 Angers cedex 9, France.
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Pichard
Département de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier universitaire, 4, rue Larrey, 49933 Angers cedex 9, France.
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Darviot
Unité fonctionnelle de médecine des voyages, laboratoire de parasitologie-mycologie, centre hospitalier universitaire, 4, rue Larrey, 49933 Angers cedex 9, France. Electronic address: LuDeGentile@chu-angers.fr.
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de Gentile
D000300:Adoption; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005602:France; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D038622:Internationality; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors
Adoption internationale; Infectious diseases; International adoption; Pathologies infectieuses