BC Drug and Poison Information Centre (DPIC) has recently joined Environmental Health Services (EHS) at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). Together we provide comprehensive medical and public health expertise about cases of environmental exposures to toxic substances.
Case study
A family physician from a rural BC community contacted the DPIC regarding a 2-year-old girl with a blood lead level of 1.29 µmol/L (26.7 µg/dL).
Seizures with fever occur in 3% to 5% of children in North America and Europe[1,2] and in up to 14% of children of Asian origin.[3] In most children, these seizures are the manifestation of an underlying genetic abnormality that is expressed over a relatively small number of years and is associated with an excellent prognosis. Very occasionally seizures that are due to an underlying brain lesion or infection, or to a more serious genetic abnormality, may also occur initially at a time of fever.
Convulsive status epilepticus accounts for 70% of episodes of status epilepticus (SE) occurring in infants and children.[1] Status epilepticus, whether convulsive or nonconvulsive, is “an epileptic seizure that is sufficiently prolonged or repeated at sufficiently brief intervals so as to produce an unvarying and enduring epileptic condition.”[2]
Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder in childhood. Although most children who have an epileptic seizure do well, the diagnosis of such a seizure in a child can cause considerable anxiety for the parents. A physician managing a child following a first afebrile seizure should try to answer five questions:
