[spaypets]

The risk of such ailments is fairly high with international adoptions from orphanages. These children are living in close quarters with poor sanitation and caregivers who often live in substandard conditions.

Agencies recommend you bring medication with you for such things as scabies and lice so you can begin treatments before you come home.

Virtually all of these creepy crawlies are easily treated (your son could get lice at school, btw). Proper handwashing should prevent any intestinal parasites from transferring to you or your family -- you will want to bring a stool sample to your pediatrician. It's icky, but not really scary. The scary stuff are diseases like TB and hepatitis (which you should also test for when you get home).

That being said, we adopted our daughter from an orphanage in India and had no such problems. She was absolutely healthy. I know someone else who adopted from Cambodia and had a baby with scabies but it cleared right up with medication.