Vaccination coverage among children enrolled in Head Start programs, licensed child care facilities, and entering school--United States, 2000-01 school year.
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The implementation of state and local requirements for vaccination before entry to Head Start programs, licensed child care facilities, and school has resulted in high vaccination levels among preschool and school children. One of the national health objectives for 2010 is to maintain > or = 95% vaccination coverage among children attending licensed child care centers and kindergarten through postsecondary school (objective 12-23). National estimates of vaccination coverage among children in Head Start programs, licensed child care facilities, and those entering school have been published each year since 1997 on the basis of reports from federally funded immunization programs (IPs) in the 50 states, five cities, eight territories, and the District of Columbia. This report summarizes data reported by states, cities, and the District of Columbia for the 2000-01 school year. Although vaccination coverage for 2000-01 appears similar to that for previous years, the number of programs reporting and the completeness of the reports are lower than in previous years and do not permit precise estimation of coverage at the national level. IPs use school data to identify undervaccinated children enrolled in Head Start programs, licensed child care facilities, and those entering school; evaluate the success of prevention programs targeting these children; and document the proportion of children whose parents claim exemptions from one or more vaccines. Plans are ongoing to assist IPs in applying successful strategies for collecting, reporting, and increasing the precision of coverage estimates for these populations. (+info)
Intestinal parasitic infection and associated symptoms in children attending day care centres in Trujillo, Venezuela.
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OBJECTIVES: To examine the presence of intestinal protozoan and helminth infections and their association with clinical signs and symptoms in children in Trujillo, Venezuela. METHODS: Conventional microscopic methods (thick-smear, saline and iodine solutions) were used to identify parasites in stool samples of 301 children attending day care centres. A subgroup of 45 children was evaluated clinically and parasitologically five times during a 1-month period using conventional methods and the Kinyoun acid-fast stain for Cryptosporidium identification. RESULTS: The point prevalence of protozoan infections was 21% for Giardia duodenalis, 1.0% for Entamoeba histolytica/dispar, 4% for Entamoeba coli, 16% for Blastocystis hominis, and 89% for Cryptosporidium parvum. Prevalence of helminth infection was 11% for Ascaris lumbricoides, 10% for Trichuris trichiura, 0.3% for Strongyloides stercoralis, and 1.3% for Hymenolepis nana. Over a 1-month time frame, new infections were observed at a rate of 11% for G. duodenalis, 4% for E. histolytica/dispar, 7% for A. lumbricoides, 11% for T. trichiura, 0% for S. stercoralis, and 2% for H. nana. Intestinal symptoms (diarrhoea, vomiting, gas, stomach pain, and loss of appetite) were associated with presence of one or more of C. parvum or B. hominis organisms in stool samples. CONCLUSIONS: Intestinal parasitic infections contribute significantly to the enteric disease burden experienced by this group of children. The organisms most strongly implicated by this study are common and difficult-to-treat protozoan pathogens. (+info)
Haemophilus influenzae carriage in children attending French day care centers: a molecular epidemiological study.
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The nasopharyngeal Haemophilus influenzae flora of healthy children under the age of 3 years attending day care centers in three distinct French geographic areas was analyzed by sampling during two periods, spring 1999 (May and June) and fall 1999 (November and December). The average carrier rate among 1,683 children was 40.9%. The prevalence of capsulated H. influenzae carriers was 0.4% for type f and 0.6% for type e. No type b strains were found among these children, of whom 98.5% had received one or more doses of anti-Haemophilus b vaccine. Among the strains, 44.5% were TEM-type beta-lactamase producers and nine (1.3%) were beta-lactamase-negative ampicillin-resistant strains. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis restriction patterns showed a large diversity with 366 SmaI patterns from 663 strains. Among the strains isolated during a given period, 33% were isolated simultaneously in more than one area. In each area, depending on the sampling period, 68 to 72% of the strains had new pulsotypes and persistence of 28 to 32% of the strains was noted. For the 297 beta-lactamase-producing strains, 194 patterns were found. The genomic diversity of these strains was comparable to that of the whole set of strains and does not suggest a clonal diffusion. Among the beta-lactamase-producing strains isolated in November and December, depending on the area, 66 to 73% had new pulsotypes with persistence of only 27 to 33% of the strains. In any given geographic area, colonization by H. influenzae appears to be a dynamic process involving a high degree of genomic heterogeneity among the noncapsulated colonizing strains. (+info)
Electrophoretic analysis of genetic variability within Cryptosporidium parvum from imported and autochthonous cases of human cryptosporidiosis in the United Kingdom.
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Cryptosporidium parvum oocyst DNA samples (n = 184) from humans with cryptosporidiosis contracted during foreign travel or during outbreaks in the United Kingdom were characterized genetically and categorized by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP)-based analysis of the small-subunit gene (pSSU) (approximately 300 bp) and second internal transcribed spacer (pITS-2) (approximately 230 bp) of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The two recognized genotypes (types 1 and 2) of C. parvum could be readily differentiated by a distinct electrophoretic shift in the pSSU SSCP profile, associated with a nucleotide difference of approximately 1.3 to 1.7%. Of the 102 samples from cases contracted during foreign travel, 88 (86.3%) were identified as C. parvum type 1 and 14 (13.7%) were identified as type 2. For outbreak samples, unequivocal differentiation between type 1 (n = 20; one child nursery outbreak) and type 2 (n = 62; two waterborne outbreaks) was also achieved. Nucleotide variation in pITS-2 (both within and among samples representing each genotype) was substantially greater (10 to 13 different profiles for each genotype, relating to sequence differences of approximately 1 to 42%) than that in pSSU. SSCP analysis of pITS-2 for all samples revealed that some profiles had a broad geographical distribution whereas others were restricted to particular locations, suggesting a link between some subgenotypes and the geographical origin or source. Comparative denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis revealed the same genotypic identification and a similar subgenotypic classification of samples as SSCP analysis. The findings of this study, particularly the detection of intragenotypic variation by SSCP, should have significant diagnostic implications for investigating transmission patterns and the monitoring of outbreaks. (+info)
Aggregate exposures of nine preschool children to persistent organic pollutants at day care and at home.
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In the summer of 1997, we measured the aggregate exposures of nine preschool children, aged 2-5 years, to a suite of organic pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants that are commonly found in the home and school environment. The children attended either of two child day care centers in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina and were in day care at least 25 h/week. Over a 48-h period, we sampled indoor and outdoor air, play area soil and floor dust, as well as duplicate diets, hand surface wipes, and urine for each child at day care and at home. Our target analytes were several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), organochlorine pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB); two organophosphate pesticides (chlorpyrifos and diazinon), the lawn herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), three phenols (pentachlorophenol (PCP), nonyl phenols, and bisphenol-A), 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP), and two phthalate esters (benzylbutyl and dibutyl phthalate). In urine, our target analytes were hydroxy-PAH, TCP, 2,4-D, and PCP. To allow estimation of each child's aggregate exposures over the 48-h sampling period, we also used time-activity diaries, which were filled out by each child's teacher at day care and the parent or other primary caregiver at home. In addition, we collected detailed household information that related to potential sources of exposure, such as pesticide use or smoking habits, through questionnaires and field observation. We found that the indoor exposures were greater than those outdoors, that exposures at day care and at home were of similar magnitudes, and that diet contributed greatly to the exposures. The children's potential aggregate doses, calculated from our data, were generally well below established reference doses (RfDs) for those compounds for which RfDs are available. (+info)
Development of a minor illness inventory for children in day care centers.
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A Minor Illness Inventory has been developed for use in systematic investigations of the nature and incidence of minor illness of pre-kindergarten aged children in day care centers. Other researchers are invited to use the authors' Inventory to conduct investigations of some of the important problems associated with health and day care of young children. (+info)
Prevention of adverse effects of noise on children.
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This article presents findings from a European project co-ordinated by the National Institute of Public Health, Denmark. The project "Children and noise--prevention of adverse effects" was partly financed by the European Commission Programme on Pollution-related Diseases and included partners or consultants from six European Union Member States: Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The project used a definition of noise based on children's special development and provides examples of good practice on how to prevent the harmful effects of noise in children's daily settings. The settings analysed were day-care centres, primary schools and discotheques. Two methods were applied to obtain the effective examples of noise prevention or noise reduction: reviewing existing research and interviewing key people with knowledge and experience that has not yet appeared in the literature. A range of cases of preventing the adverse effects of noise assessed before and after the intervention provide a number of good practices, including information and awareness-raising campaigns and the identification of key concepts and key players in the prevention of noise. The examples of good practice have been effective in reducing noise, reducing the effects of noise, increasing the awareness of the importance of noise reduction or increasing action to reduce noise. The examples are based on a common format for reviewing preventive measures and can serve as direct inspiration for action to prevent noise in children's daily settings. (+info)
Do environmental influences alter motor abilities acquisition? A comparison among children from day-care centers and private schools.
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Development occurs in a proper rhythm as result of genetic inheritance and environment factors. This study had the aim to identify some environmental risk factors for the motor development in two groups of healthy children. 100 pre-school aged (five years children) from two day-care centers and a private school were evaluated, in Recife-PE. All the children underwent to a motor skills assessment and their parents answered a questionnaire. The children from the public nursery remained behind in fine motor skills. The results showed that the biologically healthy children development can suffer negative influence of the environmental risk factors. In this research these factors were: the father absence, improper toys use to the correct age, the place were the child was kept in the early childhood, the lack of pedagogical guidance and extra-parental socialization and low familiar socioeconomic status. (+info)