Pediatrics
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To estimate the proportion of children 1 to 5 years of age who received blood lead testing during 1988-1994 and to assess whether predictors of testing coincided with predictors of elevated blood lead levels. ⋯ Lead screening was more frequent among children with risk factors for lead exposure. However, among children with elevated blood lead levels, only one third had been tested previously. In 1993 an estimated 564 000 children 1 to 5 years of age had elevated blood lead levels but were never screened. Physicians should screen Medicaid-eligible children and should follow state or local health department recommendations about identifying and screening other at-risk children. In areas where no health department guidelines exist, physicians should screen all children or screen based on known risk factors.
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Childhood tuberculosis (TB) is an important indicator of public health success in interrupting and preventing TB transmission. To determine the frequency and types of missed opportunities for preventing TB among children <5 years of age. ⋯ Important missed opportunities to prevent TB in children include the failure to find and appropriately manage adult source cases and failure to completely evaluate and properly treat children exposed to TB. Improvements in case detection, case management, and contact investigations are necessary to eliminate TB in children.