Background: Scurvy, historically rare in-high income countries, has re-emerged as an indicator of socioeconomic and dietary disparities. Limited data exist on scurvy trends among European children, particularly following socioeconomic changes since the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analysed scurvy incidence trends among French children over a nine-year period, examining potential post-pandemic increases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the seasonal transmission pattern of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), challenging the launch of palivizumab immunization campaigns. This study explored the performance of the moving epidemic method (MEM) to guide the launch of such campaigns.
Methods: Data were collected through a continuous RSV surveillance system (07/2013‒03/2022) in Québec, Canada.
Objective: To investigate a dose-response relationship between the magnitude of decrease in pediatric respiratory tract infections (RTI) during the 2020 implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) and the rise thereafter during NPI lifting.
Study Design: We conducted an interrupted, time-series analysis, based on a multinational surveillance system. All patients <16 years of age coming to medical attention with various symptoms and signs of RTI at 25 pediatric emergency departments from 13 European countries between January 2018 and June 2022 were included.
Importance: Mental disorders among the pediatric population are a major area of public health concern. Little is known regarding changes in pediatric hospital resource use related to mental health (MH) long after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Objective: To assess rates and trends of hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits related to MH and self-harm (SH) among children before and during the 3 years following the pandemic onset.
Objective: To study the impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on the monthly incidence of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) cases overall and those with a viral or bacterial identification.
Study Design: We conducted an interrupted time-series analysis using seasonally adjusted Poisson regression models from the French national prospective and multicenter SUDI registry, that included all SUDI cases below the age of 1 year who died from 2016 to 2021 in mainland France.
Results: Of 998 SUDI cases analyzed, 750 were recorded during the prepandemic period (January 2016 through March 2020) and 248 during the NPI period (April 2020 through December 2021).
Lancet Child Adolesc Health
October 2024
Importance: Numerous studies have provided evidence for the negative associations of the COVID-19 pandemic with mental health, but data on the use of psychotropic medication in children and adolescents after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic are lacking.
Objective: To assess the rates and trends of psychotropic medication prescribing before and over the 2 years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in children and adolescents in France.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study used nationwide interrupted time-series analysis of outpatient drug dispensing data from the IQVIA X-ponent database.
Importance: Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) is the most common type of vasculitis in children. The factors that trigger the disease are poorly understood. Although several viruses and seasonal bacterial infections have been associated with HSP, differentiating the specific associations of these pathogens with the onset of HSP remains a challenge due to their overlapping seasonal patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C or PIMS-TS) is a severe disease. N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is used for positive and differential diagnosis, diagnosis of complications and severity, and cardiogenic shock prediction. However, contrasting cut-offs have been suggested.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In France, vaccination has been implemented against Hi serotype b (Hib), pneumococcus with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV), and Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C (MenC). These interventions with different coverage and uptake have disrupted the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable acute bacterial meningitis (ABM).
Methods: We analyzed data from a French prospective surveillance network of ABM in children ≤15 years old enrolled by 259 pediatric wards (estimated national coverage: 61%).
Background: The value of formative objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) during the pre-clinical years of medical education remains unclear. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a formative OSCE program for medical students in their pre-clinical years on subsequent performance in summative OSCE.
Methods: We conducted a non-randomized controlled prospective pilot study that included all medical students from the last year of the pre-clinical cycle of the Université Paris-Cité Medical School, France, in 2021.
Using multiple national surveillance systems, we found an increase in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease during after the relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19, which strongly varied by age. Age groups with higher incidence of respiratory syncytial virus and influenza also experienced higher increase in invasive pneumococcal disease incidence, with no change in pneumococcal carriage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(Hi) is one of the leading bacteria implicated in childhood acute otitis media (AOM). Recent concerns have been raised about the emergence of Hi-resistant strains. We aimed to analyze the evolution of β-lactam resistance to Hi among strains isolated from nasopharyngeal carriage in children with AOM and in mild ear fluid (MEF) after the spontaneous perforation of the tympanic membrane (SPTM) in France.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnowledge of infectious diseases and their treatments is constantly evolving. New infectious agents are regularly discovered, due mainly to improvement of identification techniques, especially the development of molecular biology and mass spectrometry. While changes in the epidemiology of infectious diseases are not always predictable or readily understood, several factors regularly enter into consideration, such as not only the natural history of diseases and the impact of vaccinations, but also the excessive and irrational use of antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnowledge of infectious diseases and their treatments is constantly evolving. New infectious agents are regularly discovered, mainly due to improvement of identification techniques, especially the development of molecular biology and mass spectrometry. While changes in the epidemiology of infectious diseases are not always predictable or readily understood, several factors regularly enter into consideration, such as not only the natural history of diseases, the impact of vaccinations, but also the excessive and irrational use of antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine whether the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with an increased incidence of uveitis in children.
Study Design: We performed a time-series analysis of patient records from a national, hospital-based, French surveillance system. All children hospitalized for uveitis in France between January 2012 and March 2022 were included.
Background: Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is a life-threatening complication of sickle cell disease (SCD). Although respiratory pathogens are frequently detected in children with ACS, their respective role in triggering the disease is still unclear. We hypothesized that the incidence of ACS followed the unprecedented population-level changes in respiratory pathogen dynamics after COVID-19-related nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs).
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