This first Pediatrics Perspectives column on global health joins the monthly rotation with other columns on medical history, graduate medical education, and medical student education. It makes good sense to add global health to the rotation. After all, the future of our world depends on the health and well-being of all its children. Medical history will be determined by the global health issues facing children today, and surely our education programs must broaden their content to include worldwide issues to meet the demands of future pediatric practice. It has been said by many pediatricians that any disease found on this planet is no farther than a plane ride from your local hospital. Clearly, the world is a very small place for all its inhabitants, and every day, travel continues to bring us closer. Global Health Perspectives will bring issues to the readership that will stimulate our thinking about strategies and initiatives to improve child health in the broadest context. For our initial column, Drs Cabral and Soares de Moura have traced the recent history of global child health, sharing perspectives that should cause each of us to think about the future of humankind.

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Few situations are more anxiety provoking than that of a small child being attacked by a dog. On occasion dogs have been known to save human lives. Conversely, dogs have actually been known to kill (references 1 and 2; Chicago Sun-Times, March 31, 1980). Unfortunately, the incidence of dog bites has increased in recent years, and more than 1 million Americans are bitten by dogs every year.3-5 In addition, children are the most frequent victims.1,4-8 With the rising crime rate, more citizens are buying or even renting large and sometimes vicious dogs to protect their family or property. (Chicago Sun-Times, March 31, 1980, and reference 5).