One of the thousands of details to be handled when adopting internationally is making sure your new family member gets caught up with U.S. vaccination recommendations. Now you may need to make an appointment for other family members, too.
The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends hepatitis A vaccines for anyone in close contact with international adoptees in the months after they arrive home. The academy notes that almost 100 percent of children adopted abroad between 1998 and 2008 came from countries with high rates of the hepatitis A virus, which is highly contagious. People who have hepatitis A often don't have symptoms, so it's hard to know they carry the virus and could infect others.
Homecoming tales and stories of how an adoptive family came to be are sweet, but sometimes adoptees' later lives are just as touching.
The Colorado Springs Gazette recently told the story of Nikolai Louritt, a starting lineman for a local high school's football team. Louritt, now 16, was adopted from a Russian orphanage as a toddler and uses prostheses to replace his legs, which were amputated to treat congenital malformations.
Despite the challenges of using prosthetic legs (one with a hydraulic knee), he's a starting offensive lineman, and his approach to life comes through in the Gazette story. "You can't tell me what I can and can't do," Louritt said. "I can do whatever I want."