(The ISTM Certificate in Travel Health® calls for familiarization with pediatric aspects by including many BAY 73-4506 clinical trial questions on the subject.) What is presently lacking is a uniform definition of “children,” a dilemma which extends into the travel medicine literature. In recent articles in the JTM and elsewhere, authors of major articles use 14, 16, 18, and 20 years of age as the upper age limit of their subjects. And while the authors do segregate their subjects into groups by age (apparently agreeing that infants have little in common with older teenagers),

there is no uniformity in the segregations, making comparisons difficult. Moreover, some authors compare travel-related illness among adults versus those in children, using selleckchem the author’s definition of “children.” (The American Academy of Pediatrics defines pediatrics as “beginning with the fetus and continuing until the age of 21 years—and longer if it is an ongoing problem that is basically a childhood condition.”)8 The many recent studies in this issue and elsewhere on children returning home ill should not give a false impression that taking children overseas is particularly hazardous. Until recently, little data existed on the specific morbidity and mortality though anecdotal experience and informal surveys suggested that serious illness and deaths were

rare.9 The present studies reinforce those impressions. These studies limit themselves to describing the types of illnesses seen in returning children and the vast majority of the illnesses were relatively minor. This was true even for children who go on adventurous trips and for very young children. But the studies included only children seen in specific large Protein tyrosine phosphatase medical centers with which the authors are affiliated. Excluded are children who returned home ill but were seen at other medical centers, by private physicians, or not at all. But likely, children with serious travel-related illnesses

would have gravitated to the larger medical centers. No deaths were reported. But deaths occurring overseas could have escaped inclusion in the studies. Experienced travel medicine practitioners, even those who possess little formal training in caring for children, generally possess the expertise to counsel parents on keeping their children healthy when they travel. And generally such practitioners should be the first consulted when children return home ill. The articles on pediatric travel medicine in this issue of JTM add substance to the growing literature on the subject, are evidence based, and all the articles reach the same general conclusion, that the risk of major travel-related illnesses in children is quite small. The author states he has no conflicts of interest to declare. “
“Background.