Under-Reporting of Tuberculosis Disease among Children and Adolescents in Low and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review.

Under-reporting of tuberculosis (TB) disease in children and adolescents is a significant global concern, as many children are missing from TB notification data. A systematic literature review was conducted to understand the global reporting gap of child and adolescent TB as well as current interventions to close this gap in Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMIC). Our study found large and variable gaps in child and adolescent TB reporting, due to various factors. Interventions to close this gap exist but are limited. Future studies are necessary to improve global surveillance systems to improve TB care delivery for children and adolescents.

Prevalence and Management of Invasive Bacterial Infections in Febrile Infants Ages 2 to 6 Months.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Validated prediction rules identify febrile neonates at low risk for invasive bacterial infection. The optimal approach for older febrile infants, however, remains uncertain. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort and nested case-control study of infants 2 to 6 months of age presenting with fever (≥38.0 °C) to 1 of 5 emergency departments. The study period was from 2011 to 2019. The primary outcome was invasive bacterial infection, defined by the growth of pathogenic bacteria from either blood or cerebrospinal fluid culture. Secondary outcomes included obtaining bacterial cultures (blood, cerebrospinal fluid, or urine), administering antibiotics, and hospitalization. For the nested case-control study, we age-matched infants with invasive bacterial infection to 3 infants without invasive bacterial infection, sampled from the overall cohort. RESULTS: There were 21,150 eligible patient encounters over 9-years, and 101 infants had a documented invasive bacterial infection (0.48%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.39% to 0.58%). Invasive bacterial infection prevalence ranged from 0.2% to 0.6% among the 5 sites. The frequency of bacterial cultures ranged from 14.5% to 53.5% for blood, 1.6% to 12.9% for cerebrospinal fluid, and 31.8% to 63.2% for urine. Antibiotic administration varied from 19.2% to 46.7% and hospitalization from 16.6% to 28.3%. From the case-control study, the estimated invasive bacterial infection prevalence for previously healthy, not pretreated, and well-appearing febrile infants was 0.32% (95% CI, 0.24% to 0.41%). CONCLUSION: Although invasive bacterial infections were uncommon among febrile infants 2 to 6 months in the emergency department, the approach to diagnosis and management varied widely between sites. Therefore, evidence-based guidelines are needed to reduce low-value testing and treatment while avoiding missing infants with invasive bacterial infections.

Enterococcus hirae Bacteremia in an Infant: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Enterococcus hirae is a gram-positive coccus that is rarely implicated in human disease and has not been reported in pediatric patients. We report a case of catheter-associated bloodstream infection and prolonged bacteremia in a 7-month-old infant dependent on total parenteral nutrition. The species was identified by the VITEK2 system and confirmed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. The organisms was susceptible to ampicillin, vancomycin, and high-level gentamicin. The patient was treated with vancomycin and gentamicin with adjunctive vancomycin lock therapy but had persistent bacteremia. Therapy was changed to dual ß-lactam therapy of ampicillin and ceftriaxone with synergistic gentamicin, which led to clearance of the enterococcal bacteremia. E hirae is an unusual species that may be difficult for the microbiology laboratory to identify. This is the first pediatric case and the second case of invasive E hirae in the United States.

Group A streptococcal pharyngitis associated with primary peritonitis.

Primary peritonitis, a bacterial infection within the peritoneal cavity that arises in the absence of an intraperitoneal source, is a rare entity in paediatrics. We describe the case of a previously healthy 11-year-old girl who presented with an acute abdomen and was found to have primary peritonitis due to Streptococcus pyogenes She had an episode of pharyngitis with pharyngeal cultures positive for S. pyogenes in the month prior to presentation. We performed a review of the literature to better elucidate the risk factors, pathophysiology and presentation of peritonitis due to S. pyogenes and to draw attention to the potential association between group A streptococcal pharyngitis and peritonitis.