Ethics of Managing an Adolescent Living with Disability.

An ethical challenge arose when the parents of an adolescent girl living with severe intellectual disability requested for a permanent surgical intervention (hysterectomy) that would cause cessation of menstruation and reduce the possibility of pregnancy following nonconsensual sex. The family background was rural with poor access to extended family/community support, financial and social welfare resources. The parental distress was real with the adolescent incompetent to give informed consent.

Vaccine Hesitancy: Obstacles and Challenges.

Purpose Of Review: In 2019, vaccine hesitancy (VH) was named as one of the top 10 threats to global health by the World Health Organization (WHO). We highlight the factors affecting VH, the role of VH in limiting vaccine uptake and inability to achieve collective immunity, and possible solutions.

Recent Findings: There are still uncertainties and concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, which promote VH and undermine public confidence in immunization.

Esports: What Do Pediatricians Need to Know?

Esports has seen a massive increase in the number of players, especially adolescents. Given the recent addition of gaming disorder as a diagnostic disorder, it is especially timely to understand the pattern and psychological factors associated with Esports. Esports is a recent phenomenon, and there is very limited awareness about its related consequences among child health professionals.

Indian Academy of Pediatrics Consensus Guidelines for Adolescent Friendly Health Services.

Justification: Adolescent health is critical to the current and future well- being of the world. Pediatricians need country specific guidelines in accordance with international and national standards to establish comprehensive adolescent friendly health services in clinical practice.

Process: Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) in association with Adolescent Health Academy formed a committee of subject experts in June, 2019 to formulate guidelines for adolescent friendly health services.

The Role of Telemedicine in Child and Adolescent Healthcare in India.

Purpose Of Review: We highlight the evolution and use of telemedicine in child and adolescent healthcare in India, in pre and post pandemic eras.

Recent Findings: The latest research endorses telemedicine as a successful strategy in resource-limited settings to provide accessible and equitable healthcare.

Summary: Telemedicine was initiated in India in 2001.

Digital failure: An emerging reason of anger expression among adolescents.

Network connectivity can often lead to positive as well as negative mood states among regular Internet users. Recently, studies have mainly focused on the impact of Internet abuse/addiction on the various aspects of the individual, in terms of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal domains. However, one of the issues that is not much reported are the issues about what happens to the children who are not able to access the internet due to connectivity issues.

Psychological care in low-resource settings for adolescents.

Adolescents living in low-resource settings lack access to adequate psychological care. The barriers to mental health care in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) include high disease burden, low allocation of resources, lack of national mental health policy and child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) professionals and services, poverty, illiteracy and poor availability of adolescent friendly health services. WHO has recommended a stepped task shifting approach to mental health care in LMIC.