Otitis media in Inuit children in the Eastern Canadian Arctic - an overview - 1968 to date

Clinical observations made on the Inuit in the Eastern Canadian Arctic duri ng the past three decades support that the current high prevalence of chron ic otitis media among their children is a relatively new phenomenon. It is a social/economic disease related to their urbanization that occurred follo wing World War II when the vast majority of the Inuit abandoned their isola ted nomadic way of life and moved into permanent settlements. The disease, in a great many, runs a natural course with spontaneous healing. There is e vidence that as the new millennium approaches the prevalence of the disease among the children is decreasing. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. A ll rights reserved.