Society for Pediatric Urgent Care

The use of either prednisolone or low-dose dexamethasone in the treatment of childhood croup lacks a rigorous evidence base despite widespread use. Check out this recent study.

Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3) is a voluntary, five-year payment model that will provide greater flexibility to ambulance care teams to address emergency health care needs of Medicare beneficiaries following a 911 call.  Read more here.

Sanofi announced that it signed a deal with Roche for exclusive over-the-counter rights to Tamiflu to prevent and treat influenza in the U.S.  The company will now be responsible for negotiating the switch to over-the counter (OTC) with the FDA, in addition to marketing, scientific engagement, and distribution of Tamiflu OTC in the United States, according to the press release.  Read more here.

WARRENVILLE, Ill., Oct. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — A nation-wide coalition of leading organizations, associations, trade groups and societies have come together in support of convenient care, urgent care, emergency medicine, retail medicine, worksite clinics, and telehealth. This coalition called the On-Demand Medicine Association Collaborative will discuss and address common industry challenges of the on-demand healthcare industry and to support more accessible healthcare across the country. Read more here

Samples of lung fluid from 29 lung injury patients in 10 states all contained the same chemical, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month. The discovery is a huge step forward for the ongoing investigation into the severe and mysterious lung injuries that have affected e-cigarette users across the country. The chemical, called vitamin E acetate is now considered a “chemical of concern” by the CDC, which is investigating the outbreak. As of November 5th, 2019, 39 people have died of the injury, and 2,051 cases are being investigated. Read More

Measles-ravaged immune system must ‘relearn’ how to protect the body against infections.

Over the past decade, evidence has mounted that the measles vaccine protects in not one but two ways: Not only does it prevent the well-known acute illness with spots and fever that frequently sends children to the hospital, but it also appears to protect from other infections over the long term.

How does this work? Some researchers have suggested that the vaccine gives a general boost to the immune system. Others have hypothesized that the vaccine’s extended protective effects stem from preventing measles infection itself. According to this theory, the virus can impair the body’s immune memory, causing so-called immune amnesia. Read more

CDC recently released an article in Pediatrics about acute flaccid myelitis activity in the United States from 2015 to 2017.
Key Findings

• From 2015 to 2017, 193 patients aged 21 and younger in 41 states were confirmed to have AFM.
• Most cases (116) occurred between August and November, with the largest number of cases (143) occurring in 2016.
• The median age of cases was 6 years.
• Strong evidence pointed to viruses, including enteroviruses, as having a role in these AFM cases.
• Most cases (79%) had a respiratory illness or fever less than a week before weakness onset.
• One CSF specimen tested positive for coxsackievirus A16; finding virus in the spinal fluid continues to be challenging.
• Close to 30% of respiratory specimens tested positive for enteroviruses or rhinoviruses.
• No single pathogen was identified as the primary cause of AFM

How You Can Help:
Variability in awareness about AFM can lead to underreporting to the health department and affect timely collection of appropriate specimens. Continue to spread the word about AFM by sharing this information with colleagues, posting links to the article, or by retweeting CDC’s AFM tweets from @DrNancyM_CDC and @CDCdirector.

Practice guideline update summary: Acute treatment of migraine in children and adolescents
Report of the Guideline Development, Dissemination, and ImplementationSubcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Headache Society

Maryam Oskoui, MD, MSc, Tamara Pringsheim, MD, Yolanda Holler-Managan, MD, Sonja Potrebic, MD, PhD,Lori Billinghurst, MD, MSc, David Gloss, MD, MPH&TM, Andrew D. Hershey, MD, PhD, Nicole Licking, DO,Michael Sowell, MD, M. Cristina Victorio, MD, Elaine M. Gersz, Emily Leininger, Heather Zanitsch,Marcy Yonker, MD, and Kenneth Mack, MD, PhD

Read full abstract here.

AAP prevention and treatment recommendations for the 2019-’20 influenza season include seven main updates and continue to urge annual vaccination for everyone 6 months and older.

The policy statement Recommendations for Prevention and Control of Influenza in Children, 2019-2020,from the Committee on Infectious Diseases,is available at https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-2478 and will be published in the October issue of Pediatrics.  Click here to read more.