[Current aspects and prospects of preventive pediatrics in France]

Preventive medicine perhaps achieved its earliest and most complete successes in the field of pediatrics. Work on the problems of main concern in the last third of the century has reached a stage where preventive medicine has virtually mastered those of nutrition and infection in our countries. The current problems are malformation, accidents, and suicide, and this has meant a major shift of interest for preventive activity. In some fields, prevention-detection of neonatal affections takes place in the prenatal period: here, the pediatrician joins hands with the geneticist and the obstetrician. In other fields, such as accident prevention, the pediatrician's role is of particular importance to the authorities, industry, and the family. Finally, and this is new, the pediatrician is responsible for the prevention of diseases occurring in the adult. His role in this was a matter of course in nutritional diseases such as malnutrition and rickets, and in infections such as tuberculosis. It is assuming increasing importance in the detection and prevention of certain risk factors and common affections of the adult such as obesity, hypertension and atheroma.