Infants born during the COVID-19 pandemic have less interest in masked faces than unmasked faces
The COVID-19 pandemic was managed with lockdown, social distancing, mask-wearing and vaccination. Babies experienced societal isolation and encountered mask-wearing. There was speculation about whether COVID-19 mitigation measures, including mask-wearing, would impact child development.1 Deficits were identified in early communication skills among babies aged up to 24 months assessed during the pandemic.2 3 The CORAL Study is a longitudinal study of over 350 Irish infants born into the pandemic.4 We have previously demonstrated that CORAL infants had limited social circles and a reduction in social/communication skills relative to a historical cohort at 12 and 24 months of age.3 4 We used eye-tracking technology to determine where 18-month-old CORAL infants fixed their gaze when looking at unmasked and masked adults. Eye tracking (see ): Task 1 – unmasked/masked parent task: infants were presented with an image of their...
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Management of drug-related problems including drug-drug interactions caused by nirmatrelvir/ritonavir in paediatric patients with SARS-CoV-2
Children are 18.9% of the reported weekly COVID-19 cases in the USA. Consequently, novel treatment modalities—like nilmatrelvir/ritonavir—are also relevant to paediatrics. However, novelties can come with specific issues like adherence or drug–drug interactions (DDIs)1 because participants who received nilmatrelvir/ritonavir within 3 days of COVID-19 symptoms’ onset had a 89% lower risk of COVID-19-related hospital admission compared with placebo.2 Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir was approved with emergency use authorisation, also in paediatric patients (12–18 years) with mild and moderate COVID-19 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 22 December 2021) and by the European Medicines Agency (EMA, 27 January 2022). Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (300/100 mg) is administered orally two times per day(every 12 hours) for 5 days as soon as possible following COVID-19 (including Omicron variant) diagnosis in paediatric patients weighing over 40 kg. Half of this dose (150/50 mg) is recommended if the estimated glomerular filtration rate is between 30mL/min and 60 mL/min and should...
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Correction: Can I go home now? The safety and efficacy of a new UK paediatric febrile neutropenia protocol for risk-stratified early discharge on oral antibiotics
Jackson TJ, Napper R, Haeusler GM, et al. Can I go home now? The safety and efficacy of a new UK paediatric febrile neutropenia protocol for risk-stratified early discharge on oral antibiotics. Arch Dis Child 2023;108:192-197. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2021-323254 The authors have noted a discrepancy between a value in the abstract and the main body of the text and confirm that the value in the abstract is correct. The incorrect sentence in the results is: ‘Forty-eight per cent low-risk (AUS 0–1) homecare eligible episodes were discharged within 24 hours, compared with 2% AUS 0–1 but homecare ineligible.’ It should be as follows: ‘Forty-six per cent low-risk (AUS 0–1) homecare eligible episodes were discharged within 24 hours, compared with 2% AUS 0–1 but homecare ineligible.’ This change in value from 48% to 46% does not affect any of the conclusions in their paper.
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Thinking beyond intravenous immunoglobulin for Kawasaki disease
Kawasaki disease (KD), a medium vessel vasculitis of unknown aetiology, remains the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children of developed nations and is being increasingly recognised in low-income and middle-income countries. Although introduction of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) has been unequivocally proven to significantly reduce the risk of KD-associated coronary artery aneurysms (CAAs), the literature suggests that as high as 19% of children will still develop cardiac sequelae even with timely administration.1 Established risk factors for development of CAAs include coronary artery dilatation at baseline echocardiogram, young age (<12 months), male sex, persistence or recrudescence of fever 36 hours post IVIG administration and Asian race.2 Given the acute and long-term morbidity that can be associated with coronary artery involvement, several adjunctive agents to IVIG have been studied for primary intensification or subsequent treatment. Despite extensive research, heterogeneity of study subjects, drug dosing, outcome measures...
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