News

Vaccines: Past and Present

The incredible success of vaccination worldwide has not been without its share of setbacks, challenges, and controversies. While the fear of vaccine-preventable diseases has greatly diminished, new concerns about vaccine safety and the increasing number of required immunizations has led to public skepticism and parental refusal of vaccines.

A year has passed since publication of the Pyrmula et al study, which concluded that prophylactic antipyretics before vaccination should not be routine. The researchers came to this conclusion because they found reduced antibody responses to several vaccine antigens in children who received antipyretics, even though the vast majority of children studied (those given antipyretics and those not given antipyretics) had antibody titers well within the protective ranges.

The frequent visits that pediatricians have with infants are bittersweet. While they are wonderful opportunities to form lasting relationships with families, they are also times when babies suffer through the necessary pain of multiple immunizations.

Autism spectrum disorder consists of qualitative impairments in social interactions and communication and the presence of restrictive or repetitive behaviors, interests or activities as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition.

Investigators in Scotland set out to determine whether that country's ban on smoking in public places, initiated in March 2006, influenced the rate of hospital admissions for childhood asthma.

It's been 50 years since the publication of the first study demonstrating that chest compressions can be a life-saving measure for victims of cardiac arrest and 5 years since the American Heart Association published their 2005 Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiac Care.

Girls and athletics

The Title IX provision of the Education Amendments passed in 1972 prohibits discrimination regarding access to educational programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.

Athletes, especially the more than 1 million young males who play high school football each year, may develop long-term, serious neurologic problems if they suffer undetected head trauma and continue to play the sport.

The massive National Children's Study, which has survived a change in leadership and a gauntlet of criticism about its methods and its costs, has the full support of the National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, according to recent discussions.

The mother of a healthy 21-month-old girl says that her daughter's unruly hair never lies flat on the scalp and cannot be tamed by combing or brushing.

Ill-appearing 4-year-old girl with high-grade fever, without chills or rigors, and cough of 3 days’ duration. She also had a sore throat and was unable to move her neck because of pain. No history of rhinorrhea, difficulty in breathing, vomiting, or diarrhea. She had had tonsillitis 2 weeks earlier that was treated with a 1-week course of amoxicillin. Medical history otherwise unremarkable. Immunizations up-to-date.

I've just committed my family to a 5-day July vacation to Orlando so we can visit a new amusement park dedicated to Harry Potter. The famous series of books about the teenage wizard has really sparked the love of reading in many children, including mine.

An exclusive survey administered to more than 4,000 office-based MDs and Dos in more than 17 specialties found that median earnings for pediatricians dropped by about 13% last year from $187,500 in 2008 to $163,000 in 2009.

The prevalence of congenital cytomegalovirus determined by testing dried blood spots for the presence of CMV DNA is similar to the prevalence reported on the basis of standard viral cultures, according to a recent report.