Who Is at Risk?
Children under the age of 6 years because they are growing so rapidly and because they tend to put their hands or other objects into their mouths. Children from all social and economic levels can be affected by lead poisoning, although children living at or below the poverty line who live in older housing are at greatest risk.
Everyone. Persons at increased risk for giardiasis include child care workers; children who attend day care centers, including diaper-aged children; swimmers; and others who drink or accidentally swallow water from contaminated sources that is untreated (no heat inactivation, filtration, or chemical disinfection). Several community-wide outbreaks of giardiasis have been linked to drinking municipal water or recreational water contaminated with Giardia.
People at the highest risk for acquiring HIV include the following: • Anyone who has unprotected sex or who has multiple sex partners, regardless of the sexual orientation of either partner • Injection drug users who share needles • Newborn babies whose mothers are HIV positive • People with the blood disease hemophilia who were given clotting factor preparations between 1977 and April 1985 • Anyone who received a blood transfusion before April 1985 • Anyone with a sexually transmitted disease
