Meningitis

Two AAP-recommended strategies can help physicians rule out invasive bacterial infections in febrile infants, which could reduce unnecessary lumbar punctures, but they were not as effective in younger infants, researchers found.

The FDA will review GSK’s pentavalent meningococcal vaccine candidate for approval, the company announced Tuesday.

Investigational antifungal fosmanogepix has been added as a first-line treatment in recommendations penned following the emergence of an ongoing fungal meningitis outbreak, researchers said.

A pentavalent vaccine against Neisseria meningitidis was shown to be safe and effective in a phase 3 trial conducted among children and young adults in Africa’s meningitis belt, researchers reported in The New England Journal of Medicine.

A large study conducted in five African countries identified an easier and less toxic treatment for HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis that includes a single high dose of liposomal amphotericin B.

Soleil Moon Frye, who recently reprised the character of Punky Brewster in a revival of the 1980s TV show, is part of a new campaign that encourages parents to speak with pediatricians about the importance of meningococcal B vaccination.

My career has been on the preventing infectious diseases side.

A 10-year-old female presented to her primary care provider’s office with some redness and painful swelling of the area about her nose and mid-face. The history of this problem began when she developed a “pimple” on the bridge of her nose 4 days earlier. After picking at the pimple for a couple of days, she noted the onset of the erythema and painful swelling, which progressively worsened. She had no fever or other new symptoms and otherwise felt well. Her provider sent her to the ED for further management of this mid-facial cellulitis.

With COVID-19 and the question of whether glucocorticoids could be beneficial, this episode digs into the data on the use of glucocorticoids in the setting of infections, from pneumonia and septic arthritis, to meningitis and septic shock.

Reported cases of invasive Cronobacter infection rose significantly in recent years, with opened containers of contaminated powdered infant formula most commonly identified as the source of the infections, researchers reported recently in Emerging Infectious Diseases.