Sickest of the Sick
source: http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/photogallery/050906_afterkatrina/slide5.jpg
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Even before the storm, they were some of the country's neediest kids. Now, the children of Katrina who stayed longest in ramshackle government trailer parks in Baton Rouge are "the sickest I have ever seen in the U.S.," says Irwin Redlener, president of the Children's Health Fund and a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
Forty-one percent are anemic—twice the rate found in children in New York City homeless shelters, and more than twice the CDC's record rate for high-risk minorities. More than half the kids have mental-health problems. And 42 percent have respiratory infections and disorders that may be linked to formaldehyde and crowding in the trailers, the last of which FEMA finally closed in May.
Some kids may end up with permanent developmental and cognitive delays, but many can still be helped.
The agency's case-management program also "has yet to provide any services for thousands of families," according to the report, and funding for the program expires in March.
Redlener is optimistic that funds will be extended at least through mid-2010, since all that will require is "a stroke of the pen" from the new administration.
Forty-one percent are anemic—twice the rate found in children in New York City homeless shelters, and more than twice the CDC's record rate for high-risk minorities. More than half the kids have mental-health problems. And 42 percent have respiratory infections and disorders that may be linked to formaldehyde and crowding in the trailers, the last of which FEMA finally closed in May.
Some kids may end up with permanent developmental and cognitive delays, but many can still be helped.
The agency's case-management program also "has yet to provide any services for thousands of families," according to the report, and funding for the program expires in March.
Redlener is optimistic that funds will be extended at least through mid-2010, since all that will require is "a stroke of the pen" from the new administration.
