Management and outcomes of children hospitalised with COVID-19 including incidental and nosocomial infections in Australia 2020-2023: A national surveillance study.

Background: Management and outcomes of children hospitalised with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection may differ throughout the pandemic or with admission type (clinical COVID-19, incidental COVID-19 or nosocomial infection).

Objectives: Describe the severity, management and outcomes of hospitalised children with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection in Australia across the first 4 years of the pandemic and compare between admission types, SARS-CoV-2 variants, age groups and immune status.

Study Design: A multi-centre prospective cohort study of 6009 children aged 0-16 years between January 2020 and June 2023.

The Spectrum and Burden of COVID-19-Associated Neurologic Disease in Australian Children 2020-2023.

Background: We aimed to describe the clinical spectrum and burden of COVID-19-associated neurologic disease in Australian children.

Methods: We extracted Australian national sentinel site surveillance data on COVID-19-associated neurologic disease in children hospitalized in the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance network, 2020-2023. Neurologic complications included encephalitis, encephalopathy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, seizures and cerebrovascular accident among others.

The seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in Australian children: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Following reduction of public health and social measures concurrent with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron emergence in late 2021 in Australia, COVID-19 case notification rates rose rapidly. As rates of direct viral testing and reporting dropped, true infection rates were most likely to be underestimated.

Objective: To better understand infection rates and immunity in this population, we aimed to estimate SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Australians aged 0-19 years.

Obstructive Bilateral Renal Fungal Bezoars in an Extremely Premature Neonate Treated With Antifungals and Urokinase Irrigation: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Background: An ex-27-week gestation female infant developed bilateral forearm nodules at 4 weeks of life during treatment for methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. A pure growth of Candida albicans was isolated on culture of both sterile aspiration of the forearm abscess and urine without evidence of methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus . The patient went on to develop bilateral obstructive renal fungal bezoars at 11 weeks of life.

Increase in invasive group A streptococcal disease among Australian children coinciding with northern hemisphere surges.

Background: Increases in invasive group A streptococcal disease (iGAS) have recently been reported in multiple countries in the northern hemisphere, occurring during, and outside of, typical spring peaks. We report the epidemiology of iGAS among children in Australia from 1 July 2018 to 31 December 2022.

Methods: The Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) Network prospectively collected iGAS patient notifications for children and young people aged less than 18 years admitted to five major Australian paediatric hospitals in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Corrigendum to "Lower risk of multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) with the Omicron variant" [The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific 27 (2022) 100604].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.

A multicentre, retrospective audit of fosfomycin use for urinary tract infections in Australian children and adolescents.

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) due to MDR organisms are increasingly common. The lack of paediatric data on efficacious antibiotics makes UTI treatment particularly challenging. Data on the efficacy of fosfomycin use for UTI in children are variable.

Automating Case Reporting of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea to Public Health Authorities in Illinois Clinics: Implementation and Evaluation of Findings.

Background: Chlamydia and gonorrhea cases continue to rise in Illinois, increasing by 16.4% and 70.9% in 2019, respectively, compared with 2015.

Timing of the First Dose of the Hepatitis B Vaccine in Preterm Infants.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends all newborn infants receive the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 h of birth irrespective of maternal hepatitis B carrier status. However, the physiological immaturity of the immune system in preterm infants may influence the immune responses to the vaccine particularly in the first few days and weeks of life, and adverse events may occur following vaccination that are not observed in infants born at term. To review existing published guidelines surrounding timing of the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine in preterm infants born to hepatitis B surface antigen negative (HBsAg-negative) mothers.

An EHR-automated and theory-based population health management intervention for smoking cessation in diverse low-income patients of safety-net health centers: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

This study tested the preliminary effectiveness of an electronic health record (EHR)-automated population health management (PHM) intervention for smoking cessation among adult patients of a federally qualified health center in Chicago. Participants (N = 190; 64.7% women, 82.

Impact of meningococcal ACWY conjugate vaccines on pharyngeal carriage in adolescents: evidence for herd protection from the UK MenACWY programme.

Objective: Serogroup W and Y invasive meningococcal disease increased globally from 2000 onwards. Responding to a rapid increase in serogroup W clonal complex 11 (W:cc11) invasive meningococcal disease, the UK replaced an adolescent booster dose of meningococcal C conjugate vaccine with quadrivalent MenACWY conjugate vaccine in 2015. By 2018, the vaccine coverage in the eligible school cohorts aged 14 to 19 years was 84%.

Prospective characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 infections among children presenting to tertiary paediatric hospitals across Australia in 2020: a national cohort study.

Objective: To present Australia-wide data on paediatric COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndromes to inform health service provision and vaccination prioritisation.

Design: Prospective, multicentre cohort study.

Setting: Eight tertiary paediatric hospitals across six Australian states and territories in an established research surveillance network-Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease (PAEDS).

Impact of an antimicrobial stewardship intervention in neonatal intensive care: Recommendations and implementation.

Aim: To (i) determine the appropriateness of antimicrobial prescribing in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and (ii) assess the impact of a collaborative antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) intervention on prescribing practices.

Methods: The intervention was a weekly AMS audit-feedback joint ward round (6-month period) of Neonatology and Infectious Diseases clinicians in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit in Melbourne, Australia. Antibiotic prescriptions were audited and recommendations delivered in real time.

'Be on the TEAM' Study (Teenagers Against Meningitis): protocol for a controlled clinical trial evaluating the impact of 4CMenB or MenB-fHbp vaccination on the pharyngeal carriage of meningococci in adolescents.

Introduction: Capsular group B (MenB) is the most common cause of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in many parts of the world. A MenB vaccine directed against the polysaccharide capsule remains elusive due to poor immunogenicity and safety concerns. The vaccines licensed for the prevention of MenB disease, 4CMenB (Bexsero) and MenB-fHbp (Trumenba), are serogroup B 'substitute' vaccines, comprised of subcapsular proteins and are designed to provide protection against most MenB disease-causing strains.

Energetics in Epoxide, Thiirane, Aziridine and Phosphirane Containing Cyclopentanols: Effects of Intramolecular OH⋯O, S, N and P Contacts.

A recent computational analysis of the stabilizing intramolecular OH⋯O contact in 1,2-dialkyl-2,3-epoxycyclopentanol diastereomers has been extended to thiiriane, aziridine and phosphirane analogues. Density functional theory (DFT), second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and CCSD(T) coupled-cluster computations with simple methyl and ethyl substituents indicate that electronic energies of the c i s isomers are lowered by roughly 3 to 4 kcal mol when the OH group of these cyclopentanol systems forms an intramolecular contact with the O, S, N or P atom on the adjacent carbon. The results also suggest that S and P can participate in these stabilizing intramolecular interactions as effectively as O and N in constrained molecular environments.

Leveraging Informatics to Identify Reportable Cases: Pilot Findings on Electronic Case Reporting of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea.

Consensus-based technical guidance for electronic case reporting (eCR) of sexually transmitted infections was implemented within existing health information technologies to automatically detect chlamydia and gonorrhea cases based on diagnosis and laboratory observation codes and build a case report using industry standards. The process was evaluated using 12 420 ambulatory encounters among adolescents and adults 15 years and older seen at 8 Chicago-area community health centers between May 1 and June 30, 2017. We tabulated the frequency of matches between the case detection logic and patient data and compared the eCR identified cases with paper case reports.

Empiric antibiotic regimens for neonatal sepsis in Australian and New Zealand neonatal intensive care units.

Aim: Neonatal sepsis remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality, and requires prompt empiric treatment. However, only a minority of babies who receive antibiotics for suspected sepsis have an infection. Antimicrobial exposure in infancy has important short- and long-term consequences.