Infectious Diseases

Sixteen-year-old boy referred to pediatric emergency department (ED) by his primary care physician with a history of headache, blurred vision, and mild proptosis of right eye. Vision: 20/200 OD (right eye) and 20/25 OS (left eye).

A 17-year-old boy presents with a red, scaly rash on his trunk that began as a single lesion on his left flank. The generalized eruption had developed within 24 to 48 hours. The patient's father has psoriasis.

I appreciated the excellent photograph of cutaneous leishmaniasis thatCPT Kenneth Brooks recently contributed to Photoclinic (CONSULTANT, June2004, page 1018, Figure).

If the promise of new vaccines, such as Gardasil, is to be achieved, pediatricians and family physicians must be relieved of the burdens associated with purchasing and administering them.

The lesion on this 6-year-old boy occupies almost the entire left side of his nose. The mother attributed it to an injury her son had sustained 2Z\x weeks earlier, when he was hit in the face by a baseball. The sharply defined, slightly elevated, pink macule had fine papules with an annular flat area at its inferior central aspect. A potassium hydroxide preparation of scrapings from the lesion was negative for hyphae. However, fungus culture grew Cladosporium species.

Results of a new survey of 503 caregivers who have a child with asthma reveal that few families are prepared to control their child's asthma even as the cold and influenza season gets underway. The survey found that many parents don't understand how to properly control asthma: 38%, for example, think that medication is needed only when a breathing problem occurs, and 44% agree with the statement that an asthma attack can be prevented by having the child take a rescue medication.

This season, pediatric offices and clinics will work to meet the challenges posed by the new influenza vaccination.

A 13-year-old Hispanic boy presented to emergency department with a 1-day history of red eyes. The eye changes were not associated with vision changes, increased tearing, discharge, pain, fever, or trauma.

A 17-year-old Haitian girl who was visiting Florida presented to the emergency department after she experienced pain and a change in vision in her left eye. Her right eye was asymptomatic. For the past 3 to 4 days, she had been wearing a pair of colored contact lenses she bought for fun at a discount store.

Julie Gerberding, MD, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported on progress in the availability of influenza vaccine during a plenary session presentation this morning at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2006 National Convention and Exhibition.

A report issued late this past summer by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) provides practical strategies and tools to help pediatricians and other health care professionals increase what NFID considers an alarmingly low rate of influenza immunization among children who have asthma—part of an initiative to address immunization barriers and improve parental education about the importance of influenza vaccination for all children with asthma. Influenza vaccination has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality in this high-risk pediatric population.

The child has orbital cellulitis, an infection with sometimes serious sequelae that involves the soft tissue of the orbit posterior to the orbital septum. Children are more likely than adults to contract orbital cellulitis; the median age of those affected is 7 years. Preseptal cellulitis--the other major infection of the ocular and adnexal orbital tissue--involves the soft tissue of the eyelids and periocular region anterior to the orbital septum and is considered less severe.

A 4-year-old African American boy presented with his second episode of orbital cellulitis in 9 months. William Demshok, PA-C, of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami, reports that a CT scan showed an abscess in the ethmoidal sinus with extension into the left orbit that impinges on the medial rectus muscle.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one the most important infectious diseases in the world. More than 8 million people are infected every year. The vast majority of infections--95%--occur in developing countries, where the disease accounts for 25% of avoidable adult deaths.

Emerging and spreading zoonoses are major concerns among the public and public health professionals. Recognition, surveillance, and reporting are our first line of defense.