Bonita F. Stanton, MD, Consulting Editor

There are practical reasons.

Virtually all pediatric practices will have contact with immigrant children. Approximately 14 million children living in the United States were born in another country. Roughly the same number was born in the United States to foreign-born parents. About one in four children live with at least one foreign-born parent.

Virtually every pediatric practice will take care of children who have travelled abroad. Over 30 million Americans travel abroad each year; about one-tenth of adults are travelling with children . Over the last half-century, the number travelling by air has been increasing—and is expected to continue to increase—by 5% to 10% per year. Geographic boundaries have become virtually meaningless in terms of the spread of disease and are increasingly porous in terms of containment of violence.

More importantly, there are moral reasons.

It matters that every American pediatrician know about pediatric global health issues because children everywhere depend on adults. As child health providers, we are all morally and professionally obligated to advocate for the child—everywhere. Nowhere in any of our oaths did we promise to care only for children living in, born in, or naturalized in our country.

We care for them because they are children. We also care for them because we are preparing them to be tomorrow’s adults. As child health care providers, we now know that the kind of adults they become will reflect the kind of childhood they enjoyed—or endured. We want tomorrow’s adults to be propelled by love, excitement, creativity, and vision—not shackled by hatred, despair, and anger.

It is because we care for children that we must increase our understanding of childhood disease states and health status around the world.