TB Infections Among International Adoptees

I came across this article from The Canadian Press about a study that followed 869 foreign-born children adopted into the United States.

The American study followed up on 869 foreign-born children adopted into U.S. families from 1986 through 2001. Twelve per cent of the children were infected with tuberculosis and the rate of TB infections among the adoptees rose seven per cent with each passing year through the period studied.

It’s a shame that with all of the new modern technologies, that we are still facing some of the same problems.

TB rates among the children in the American study ranged from nearly 15 per cent in adoptees from Eastern Europe, 14 per cent from Russia and 13 per cent from Korea to between 12.5 per cent and 11 per cent in India, China and South America, 8.3 per cent in Central America and the Caribbean and 2.8 per cent in Southeast Asia.

Below is a link to the full article. I just hope that instead of catching TB on this end of the process, we are able to do something to keep children from ever contracting the disease (or any other).

Link: TB Infections Among International Adoptees