Clinical Pediatrics

This study of 105 children with devel opmental handicaps and assorted com munication problems by a long-established group of specialists brings out the great importance of the team approach for establishing meaningful diagnoses and sensible treatments.

The ubiquitousness of certain protozoan and helminth parasites and the increasing geographic mobility of individuals point up the need for an awareness of the role of parasitic infections in pediatric prac tice.

This paper (a) surveys the advances in diagnosis and clinical understanding of those parasitic diseases of children which are the most common in Northern tem perate climates—amebiasis, giardiasis, pin worm infestation, visceral larva migrans, toxoplasmosis, pneumocystosis—and (b) surveys the usefulness, specificity, and limitations of the newer serologic tests in the diagnosis and management of these diseases. Therapy is not stressed.

Because of the recent recognition of the significance of Pneumocystis carinii infection, this is considered in somewhat greater detail than its rarity might other wise warrant.

The El Tor biotype began to invade the Western Pacific areas in 1961, and has by now spread into large areas of Asia from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific Ocean. For master planning against the threat to world health which this new pandemic raises, WHO convened a meeting of an Expert Committee in September 1966.

The very important report of this Committee * summarizes our most recent insights into this disease and puts forth formal proposals for combating the pandemic spread more effectively. Here are some se lected excerpts.