tailieunhanh - Disease burden and health-care clinic attendances for young children in remote Aboriginal communities of northern Australia

together we must make a decisive move, now, to improve the health of women and children around the world. we know what works. we have achieved excellent progress in a short time in some countries. the answers lie in building our collective resolve to ensure universal access to essential health services and proven, life-saving interventions as we work to strengthen health systems. these range from family planning and making childbirth safe, to increasing access to vaccines and treatment for hIV and aIds, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and other neglected diseases. the needs of each country vary and depend on existing resources. | Disease burden and health-care clinic attendances for young children in remote Aboriginal communities of northern Australia Danielle B Clucas a Kylie S Carville b Christine Connors c Bart J Currie d Jonathan R Carapetisd Ross M Andrewsd Objective To determine the frequency of presentations and infectious-disease burden at primary health care PHC services in young children in two remote Aboriginal communities in tropical northern Australia. Methods Children born after 1 January 2001 who were resident at 30 September 2005 and for whom consent was obtained were studied. Clinic records were reviewed for all presentations between 1 January 2002 and 30 September 2005. Data collected included reason for presentation if infectious antibiotic prescription and referral to hospital. Findings There were 7273 clinic presentations for 174 children aged years 55 of whom were male. The median presentation rate per child per year was 16 23 in the first year of life . Upper-respiratory-tract infections 32 and skin infections 18 were the most common infectious reasons for presentation. First presentations for scabies and skin sores peaked at the age of 2 months. By 1 year of age 63 and 69 of children had presented with scabies and skin sores respectively. Conclusion These Aboriginal children average about two visits per month to PHC centres during their first year of life. This high rate is testament to the disease burden the willingness of Aboriginal people to use health services and the high workload experienced by these health services. Scabies and skin sores remain significant health problems with this study describing a previously undocumented burden of these conditions commencing within the first few months of life. Appropriate prevention and treatment strategies should encompass early infancy to reduce the high burden of infectious diseases in this population. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2008 86 275-281. Une traduction en frangais de ce résumé figure à la