Racial underclass in child health 

The government is being urged to create policies which give Maori and Pacific Island children extra help after a report painted a disturbing picture of child health in New Zealand.
 
The government-funded report was written by the Paediatric Society. The Public Health Association says a growing racial underclass means thousands of Kiwi children are at risk from preventable illness and injury.

The Paediatric Society used its 59th conference to reveal a State of the Nation type document which paints a concerning picture of the health of New Zealand's children and young people.

It says thousands of Kiwi kids are still falling through the gaps, being needlessly hospitalised, and harmed by preventable illness and injury.

An example of preventable illness is cellulitis. Seven-year-old Janeiro McGrath picked up the skin infection after an insect bite when enjoying a day with her family at the beach. The wound got infected and fever set in.
She had to be taken to Waitakere Hospital and put on intravenous antibiotics.

"It was really alarming. It went from a golf ball to the size of a balloon," says Janeiro's mother Karen McGrath.
Doctors in New Zealand see double the rates of countries overseas where many children end up in surgery.

"They can develop into abscesses and then it would need surgical drainage," says Dr Meia Schmidt-Uili.

Cellulitis is preventable - a bug spread by exposure to children living in overcrowded homes with poor sanitation, poor hygiene and poor nutrition.

But it is just one example of several preventable diseases plaguing the children of New Zealand and strongly links poverty with child illness and death.

In particular, Maori and Pacific Island communities are at greatest risk, and they are vastly over-represented in terms of infant illness and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

The Paediatric Society blames the government for resources not reaching the poorest children, who are the most sick.

"We need to think about some joined-up working across all ministries to really support the whole of our children's' need," says Dr Nick Baker.

In the meantime, for Karen McGrath, she wishes she had been aware of Cellulitis.

"I wouldn't want anybody else's child to go through this, especially a younger child," says McGrath.

And nor do the doctors of New Zealand.

Health Minister David Cunliffe says the government is committed to addressing the challenges highlighted in the report.

He says it will help make District Health Boards and authorities aware of how a person's socioeconomic background can determine health status.