Neonatal Medicine News

Sepsis is a common and serious condition that can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Because early and effective antibiotic therapy is a critical component of treatment, there is ongoing interest in increasingly rapid and reliable diagnosis. In conjunction with clinical evaluation, biomarkers have emerged as potentially useful diagnostic tools and may additionally have a role later in therapy to evaluate clinical response and guide cessation of antibiotics (Table 1).

Injuries associated with infant walkers — a product designed to allow infants between the ages of 5 and 15 months to walk independently before these skills are developed — have decreased significantly since the enactment of federal mandatory safety standards. However, research published in Pediatrics suggested that these products provide no benefit to children and continue to increase their risk of injury, especially to their head and neck.

Recent findings suggest that approximately one-quarter of infants with suspected or confirmed Zika virus exposure during the 2015-2016 Rio de Janeiro outbreak developed eye abnormalities. Researchers said that regardless of laboratory confirmation, all infants born during Zika outbreaks “should be universally screened for eye abnormalities.”

Anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha exposure in utero did not appear to have a long-term impact on a child’s development, including their immune system and psychomotor development, according to research published in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

The rate of visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil increased by more than 50% between 1990 and 2016, and infants were the most heavily affected by the disease, according to research published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Children who experienced prenatal and postnatal homelessness were at high risk for poor health outcomes, according to study results published in Pediatrics. Homelessness lasting longer than 6 months was also a negative determinant of health.

Approximately 40% of adult patients with HIV may want to have children, according to findings published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. The desire was “surprisingly similar” at ART initiation and 2 years after successful treatment, researchers reported.

A randomized clinical trial showed that changes to living spaces, including fixing and repainting walls that were covered in lead paint, as well as installing water filters and dusting, significantly reduced the amount of lead found within the homes of pregnant women. However, the interventions did not significantly improve neurobehavioral outcomes in their children.

A report on child mortality by the U.N. Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation reports that an estimated 6.3 million children aged younger than 15 years died in 2017, or the equivalent of one child every 5 seconds.

Exposure to high levels of air pollution in pregnancy may have subtle influences on the development of the fetal thyroid gland and its subsequent function, according to findings published in JAMA Network Open.