Title: Legislation on the health protection of children of school age.

POPLINE Document Number: 047981

Author(s):

Chaudiere C

Source citation:

INTERNATIONAL DIGEST OF HEALTH LEGISLATION, 1987;38(4):870-4.

Abstract:

Legislation on children's health during school ages is common in developing countries, in contrast with regulation of earlier stages in industrialized countries. Schools provide access to children, especially in developed areas such as Europe, where 90% of children are in school. School health services answer to the health minister in Spain, to the public education minister in France, to local authorities in East Germany, and to provincial governments in Canada. Decades after instituting compulsory immunization and periodic annual medical screening, recently European countries have updated their requirements. They may concentrate on high risk groups, set up ad hoc programs, institute dental clinics or emphasize preventive medicine. The Council of Europe, after a study of 19 countries in 1981, recommended that independent school health services become integrated with other identical programs. A seminar on Vaccinations in Africa, held in Niamey, Niger, in 1987 reported that immunization in Africa remains patchy. A WHO publication revealed that children in the Third World often suffer from poverty, illiteracy, homelessness, lack of health education or medical care, and may be working at an early age. UNICEF recommended after the International Conference on Primary Health Care at Alma-Ata USSR in 1978 that 1) minimum immunization be implemented; 2) health and hygiene education be provided; and 3) growth be monitored.

Keywords:

Global
Child
Primary Health Care
Medicine
Delivery of Health Care
Political Factors
Legislation
Youth
Age Factors
Population Characteristics
Demographic Factors
Population
Health Services
Health