Neonatal Medicine News

U.S. counties with high opioid prescription rates had 1.5 times as many babies born with gastroschisis, a serious birth defect of the abdominal wall, compared with counties with low opioid prescription rates, according to research published in MMWR.

The rate of early-onset disease caused by group B Streptococcus, or GBS, has decreased among infants in the United States between 2006 and 2015, according to research published in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers said late-onset disease caused by GBS is now more common in this population, which means efforts to prevent the disease should shift toward vaccine development rather than intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis.

A New Jersey law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2019, requiring all health insurers in the state to cover donated human breast milk for infants under certain circumstances. Insurers must cover the costs if the infant is aged younger than 6 months, the milk comes from a milk bank that meets the quality guidelines of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America or is licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health, and it is prescribed to the infant by a physician. Similar laws are in place in California, New York, Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Washington, D.C.

Recent study findings published in Birth Defects Research demonstrate that infants born to mothers with severe influenza requiring ICU care were at risk of several adverse health outcomes, including prematurity.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released a draft recommendation that pregnant women be screened for hepatitis B virus infection at the first prenatal visit to prevent infection in newborns.

Mupirocin treatment effectively induced primary Staphylococcus aureus decolonization in 85% to 100% of infants in several neonatal ICUs throughout the United States, and the treatment was generally well tolerated, according to research published in Pediatrics.

Vaxelis, a hexavalent combination vaccine protecting against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B and invasive disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae type B, has been approved by the FDA for use in children aged 6 weeks to 4 years.

Slightly more than half of studies that included blood cultures collected from children aged 0 to 36 months described the methodology used to define contaminants, according to a review published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. Fewer than one-quarter of these studies reported the contamination rate found in samples, with rates reaching as high as nearly 23%, researchers wrote.

The FDA has advised against the use of teething bracelets, necklaces and other forms of jewelry, according to a press release issued by the agency. These jewelry pieces are intended to reduce teething pain among infants and provide sensory stimulation for those with special needs, including autism and ADHD.

A recent study found that the bacterial meningitis score had high sensitivity but poor specificity when identifying bacterial meningitis in infants aged 0 to 60 days.