Paediatricians' perspectives on global health priorities for newborn care in a developing country: a national survey from Nigeria.

Background: An understanding of the perception of paediatricians as key stakeholders in child healthcare delivery and the degree of congruence with current investment priorities is crucial in accelerating progress towards the attainment of global targets for child survival and overall health in developing countries. This study therefore elicited the views of paediatricians on current global priorities for newborn health in Nigeria as possible guide for policy makers.

Methods: Paediatric consultants and residents in the country were surveyed nationally between February and March 2011 using a questionnaire requiring the ranking of nine prominent and other neonatal conditions based separately on hospital admissions, mortality, morbidity and disability as well as based on all health indices in order of importance or disease burden.

Influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus hospital burden in young children in East London.

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated high hospitalization rates attributable to influenza and RSV in children aged 6 months and those aged <12 months, respectively (43 and 92.5/10 000 person-months, respectively). In conclusion, these high paediatric RSV and influenza incidence rates can be used to inform UK policy on childhood influenza immunization and subsequent RSV immunization in the future.

Patched mutations and hairy skin patches: a new sign in Gorlin syndrome.

We report on the occurrence of discrete patches of unusually long pigmented hair on the skin of three patients with Gorlin syndrome from two unrelated families with confirmed heterozygous mutations in the Patched (PTCH) gene. The PTCH protein is a negative regulator of Hedgehog signaling, and the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH)-PTCH pathway is known to play an important role in the formation and cycling of the hair follicle. We believe that the patches represent a genuine physical sign associated with Gorlin syndrome, and discuss molecular mechanisms by which they might arise.

Influenza A community-acquired pneumonia in East London infants and young children.

Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is common in young children, but there are few data in Europe on influenza A virus as a cause of childhood CAP. The aim of this study was to determine the relative contributions of different etiologic agents to CAP in children.

Methods: This was a 6-month prospective study of pediatric accident and emergency and general practice consultations with a diagnosis of CAP.

A severe epidemic of meningococcal meningitis in Nigeria, 1996.

A particularly severe epidemic of meningococcal meningitis (cerebrospinal meningitis, CSM) occurred in Nigeria between January and June 1996. There were 109,580 recorded cases and 11,717 deaths, giving a case fatality rate of 10.7% overall.

Prognostic scores for use in African meningococcal epidemics.

Current WHO guidelines for the case management of meningococcal infections during epidemics in developing countries often cannot be applied, largely because of the limited health resources in such countries. Several scoring scales based on clinical and laboratory features in numerous combinations have been developed for the management of meningococcal infections in developed countries, and these have facilitated early identification of patients with fulminant disease and thus early intervention and reduction in mortality. Unfortunately such scoring scales are not appropriate for use in developing countries.