Canadian Immunization Guide: "Anaphylaxis and other acute reactions following vaccination" chapter update.

Background: The Canadian Immunization Guide (CIG) is a comprehensive resource on immunization for health professionals and vaccine program decision-makers. It is developed based on the evidence-based recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). The NACI Vaccine Safety Working Group (VSWG) is comprised of NACI members, liaison members and external experts.

Therapeutic drug monitoring guided raltegravir dosing for prevention of vertical transmission in a premature neonate born to a woman living with perinatally acquired HIV.

We report a case of therapeutic drug monitoring guided raltegravir use for the prevention of vertical HIV transmission in a premature neonate born to a woman living with perinatally acquired HIV and documented resistance to multiple HIV drugs. Maternal viral load was above 1,000 copies/ml at delivery. This case demonstrates delayed raltegravir elimination in a neonate born at 33 weeks gestational age and a need for less frequent raltegravir dosing than is used in older infants and children.

Administration of the adjuvanted pH1N1 vaccine in egg-allergic children at high risk for influenza A/H1N1 disease.

Background: In Canada, the pH1N1 influenza vaccine is recommended for children, particularly those less than 5 years of age or with chronic underlying disease. The pH1N1 vaccine, which contains residual allergenic egg white proteins, may pose a risk for vaccination of egg-allergic children.

Objective: To describe the outcome of pH1N1 influenza vaccine administration to egg-allergic children at risk for severe H1N1 disease.

Rectal fluconazole for tinea capitis.

The present report describes a case of tinea capitis in a boy with autistic spectrum disorder and an aversion to oral medications. He refused weekly oral fluconazole and there was a poor response to daily rectal griseofulvin. He tolerated once-weekly rectal fluconazole (10 mg/kg) well and there was an excellent clinical outcome.

Protocol for management of imported pediatric malaria decreases time to medication administration.

Background: A malaria management protocol was developed and implemented at a tertiary care children's hospital in September 1999. We retrospectively evaluated children admitted with malaria 10-years preimplementation and 7-years postimplementation to determine the impact the protocol had on management and time delay to appropriate antimalarial therapy.

Methods: This before and after study compared all admissions with the discharge diagnosis of malaria in the study period.

A comparison of Canadian general pediatric dosing publications.

A comparison of the general pediatric dosing guidelines published in Canada was conducted. Institutions that publish pediatric dosing guidelines as a separate publication or as part of the hospital formulary were mailed a survey of questions to describe their publication. Publications that met the inclusion criteria were evaluated using 12 assessment criteria: approval or submissions by medical specialty groups, drug inclusion, dosing guidelines, dosing in organ failure, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic parameters, therapeutic guidelines, intravenous and oral administration guidelines, adverse drug reactions/drug interactions, referencing, drug acquisition costs, organization and readability.