Acute Encephalitis with Atypical Presentation of Rubella in Family Cluster, India.

We report 3 atypical rubella cases in a family cluster in India. The index case-patient showed only mild febrile illness, whereas the other 2 patients showed acute encephalitis and died of the disease. We confirmed rubella in the index and third cases using next-generation sequencing and IgM.

Induced Sputum as a Diagnostic Tool in Pneumonia in Under Five Children-A Hospital-based Study.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this articlewas to study the success, tolerability of sputum induction and the bacterial isolates of induced sputum in children aged <5 years. METHODS: The cross-sectional study included 120 hospitalized children aged 1-59 months meeting WHO criteria for pneumonia. Sputum induction was performed using hypertonic (3%) saline. RESULTS: Mean age of the subjects was 19.5 months (2-59 months). Overall success of sputum induction was 53.3% and highest (64.28%) in 37-59 months age group. Adverse events such as tachypnea, hypoxemia (SpO2 <90) and vomiting were observed in 41.6, 17.5 and 15.8%, respectively. A potential pathogen was isolated in 45 (70.3%) of 64 cases with good quality sputum. Klebsiella pneumoniae was the commonest (38.2%) followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (14.8%) and others. CONCLUSION: Sputum induction in young children is safe and feasible in Indian settings. While the success was limited, bacterial yield was high.

Scar formation and tuberculin conversion following BCG vaccination in infants: A prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: There is considerable variation in BCG scar failure rate on available data and correlation between BCG scar and tuberculin conversion remains controversial. Through this study we aimed to determine the scar failure rate and tuberculin conversion in term infants vaccinated with BCG within the first month. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted among 85 consecutive infants weighing >2 kg attending the immunization clinic of a medical college hospital. Fifteen subjects who could not complete the follow up were excluded. Total of 70 cases were analyzed. All babies were administered 0.1 ml of BCG and examined at 3 months (+1 week) for scar. Tuberculin test was done with 5TU PPD. An induration of >5 mm was considered positive. Statistical analysis was done using Microsoft Excel and SPSS-22. RESULTS: Out of the 70 infants, 41 (58.6%) were males. Although majority (72.9%) of infants were vaccinated within 7 days, only 18 (25.7%) received BCG within 48 hours of birth. Sixty-four (91.4%) had a visible scar at 12 weeks post vaccination representing a scar failure rate of 8.6%. Tuberculin test was positive in 50 (71.4%). The mean ± s.d. for scar and tuberculin skin test (TST) reaction size was 4.93 ± 2.01 mm and 6.01 ± 3.22 mm, respectively. The association between scar formation and tuberculin positivity was highly significant (P < 0.001). There was significant correlation between scar size and TST size (r = 0.401, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Less than 10% of infants fail to develop a scar following BCG vaccination. There is good correlation between scar positivity and tuberculin conversion.

Esophageal atresia with tracheo-esophageal fistula: Accidental transtracheal gastric intubation.

The diagnostic feature of esophageal atresia (EA) is the inability to pass a catheter into the stomach. EA can be ruled out if the feeding tube can be passed into the stomach. In EA, when a tracheo-esophageal fistula (TEF) is present, theoretically the feeding tube can find its way into the stomach via tracheal route and through the TEF. We report such a rare occurrence. In this situation, the diagnosis and further management of EA and TEF was delayed.