Assessment of the immigrant child

Abstract

In the last twenty years Spain has turned into one of the principal countries recipients of foreign population. As consequence of this massive entry of people, our country is among the first ones of Europe for interannual increase of population. The concept of immigrant child is very wide and includes minors of very diverse characteristics, as the proceeding from international adoptions, the children coming from developing countries or those that come from other developed countries. The immigrant children do not represent health risk for the autochthonous population, on the contrary, they are in situation of defenselessness for their scanty vaccination coverages, their situation of marginality and the precarious sanitary systems of the countries of origin. At the moment of offering medical paediatric attention to foreign children, we must individualize our actions in conformity with the characteristics of each patient. It is not possible to simplify in one unique protocol the best studies to resolve a problem of health in an immigrant child. The attention of these children implies an overstrain for the pediatrician and the sanitary personnel that receives them, because it is necessary to conquer idiomatic, cultural and social barriers to optimize the level of health of these patients. The syndromic initial description can help to prioritize the studies in each case (according to the most probable diagnoses). The children who return to the native land of their parents meet in a special situation of risk, for not being prepared to resist the attack of pathogen that do not exist or are rare in Spain.