A recent study lead by Dr. Anna Mandalakas of the Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Ohio found that TB infections among international adoptees have risen dramatically in the last 20 years. The rate of infection was also found to increase steadily as children got older.

"TB rates among the children in the American study ranged from nearly 15 percent in adoptees from Eastern Europe, 14 percent from Russian and 12 percent from Korea to between 12.5 percent and 11 percent in India, China and South America, 8.3 percent in Central America and the Caribbean and 2.8 percent in Southeast Asia."

Though a child can be infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis may not develop an active disease, the study's authors still recommend that adopted children be tested. Children often become infected if they spend their early years in an orphanage.

Labels: international, health, tuberculosis

Posted By: Aspen Education Group