Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 358, Issue 9299, 22–29 December 2001, Pages 2131-2132
The Lancet

Research Letters
Immunisation status of children adopted from China

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(01)07188-4Get rights and content

Summary

Many children adopted from China have antibody titres that do not correlate with those expected from their medical records. We have compared the concentrations of antibodies to poliomyelitis, diphtheria, and tetanus in children adopted from China, those adopted from other countries, and those vaccinated in the Netherlands and the UK. About 30% of children adopted from China did not have adequate protection from tetanus, diphtheria, or poliomyelitis, despite having complete vaccination recorded in their vaccination documents. These children, unlike those adopted from other countries who have documented evidence of adequate vaccination status, should be tested for antibody concentrations or reimmunised.

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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    Citation Excerpt :

    In addition to the uncertainty of interpreting the validity of the immunization records, it is unclear whether other factors such as birth country, gender, age, history of institutionalization, nutritional status, or a history of disease play a role in determining whether a child has adequate immunity against a given vaccine preventable disease. While several studies have examined whether internationally adopted children have documentation of immunizations [5–8] and protective antibody levels to vaccine preventable diseases [9–19], only two studies have comprehensively examined factors associated with protection through multivariable analyses [15,16]. The results of these studies varied and the reasons for these differences are not entirely clear.

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