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Screening for hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection is not currently routinely recommended in internationally adopted children. International adoptees seen at the University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic from 2006 to 2010 were assessed for acute HAV infection (positive HAV immunoglobulin M). Thirty of the 656 children screened (4.6%) were acutely HAV infected. HAV-infected children emigrated from Ethiopia (16), Guatemala (4), China (2), Colombia (2), Haiti (2), Philippines (2), Liberia (1), and Nepal (1). Infection was most frequent among children younger than 2 years (6.7%). No symptoms distinguished children with acute HAV infection from uninfected children. HAV infection caused significant social disruption, including separation of children from their ill adoptive parents during the initial weeks postarrival, a period important for postadoption adjustment and attachment. All international adoptees arriving from countries with high or intermediate HAV endemicity should be screened for HAV infection on arrival to the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the adoptions of Chinese children by the U.S. It tackles the social conditions of females in China whose subordination was traced in the historical domination of Confucian culture and the Chinese government's One-Child Policy of 1979 that addresses the issue of sustainability and overpopulation. It was in 1980 when the practice of adoption in China by foreigners began, and its regulation through the 1992 Adoption Law. Also discussed are the procedure in adopting Chinese children based on the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and several paradigms of adaptation.