Successful treatment of late onset infection due to multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter Lwoffii in a low birth weight neonate using ciprofloxacin.

This report presents the case of a low birth weight neonate with multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter Lwoffii infection who was successfully treated with ciprofloxacin and co-trimoxazole. Use of ciprofloxacin in pediatric populations was reviewed. The infant responded to the antibiotic regimen with sterilized cerebrospinal fluid with no adverse effects attributable to the ciprofloxacin. Although ciprofloxacin has been found to cause irreversible damage to cartilage in laboratory animals, a review of the literature found that this complication rarely occurs in pediatric patients. Ciprofloxacin has been found to be effective in the treatment of multidrug-resistant gram negative infections in pediatric patients, including premature infants. Ciprofloxacin should be considered in the treatment of neonatal infection caused by multidrug-resistant gram-negative organisms.

Response to JE vaccine among HIV-infected children, Bangkok, Thailand.

Since 1990, Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine has been part of EPI in northern Thailand, where there is a high prevalence of JE and HIV infection. To evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of JE vaccine among HIV-infected children, we conducted a retrospective study of HIV-infected and uninfected children who received 2 doses of JE vaccine at 12 months of age. Pre- and post-immunization plasma specimens were tested by plaque reduction neutralization for antibody levels to JE and dengue(1-4) viruses; titers of > or =10 were considered positive. Excluding 5 children with preimmunization antibodies, 5 of 14 (36%) HIV-infected children and 18 of 27 (67%) uninfected children had positive JE antibody titers after immunization [odds ratio (OR) 0.3, p=0.06]; 31% absolute difference [95% confidence interval (CI) 0-61.7%). The geometric mean titer of HIV-infected children with positive titers was lower than that of control children (15.1 vs, 23.8; p=0.17). No significant vaccine-associated adverse events were noted. We conclude that primary antibody response to JE vaccine was low among HIV-infected children and was approximately half of that seen among uninfected children. In endemic areas, HIV-infected children are likely to be at risk of acquiring JE despite routine immunization with 2 doses.