Neisseria meningitidis: presentation, treatment, and prevention.

Neisseria meningitidis is a leading cause of meningitis and septicemia in children and young adults in the United States. Highly publicized outbreaks of disease caused by this organism in communities and on college campuses have resulted in a heightened public awareness of its potentially devastating effects. The rapid progression of signs and symptoms of meningococcemia necessitate early recognition and institution of appropriate therapeutic measures. Identifying contacts of index cases who are at high risk of acquiring the disease allows health care providers to institute appropriate chemoprophylaxis. During community outbreaks, health care providers play an equally important role in calming the fears of low-risk contacts and their families. Familiarity with the risks and benefits of the meningococcal vaccine allows health care providers to offer this immunization to appropriate patients.

Health care issues for families traveling internationally with children.

For a variety of reasons, international travel by American families and their children is increasingly more common. Comfort and health care issues are important to these families, and they often address their questions and concerns to their health care practitioner. Traveling to foreign countries involves concerns about food, water, medications, immunizations, and supplies. Seeking medical care on both a routine and emergency basis may be challenging for families traveling to countries outside the United States. This article discusses health care topics relating to children traveling outside the United States and includes answers to the most commonly asked questions and a list of references and resources for parents and practitioners. Pediatric care providers will find this article to be a helpful guide for their traveling pediatric patients.

Reach Out and Read: a pediatric clinic-based approach to early literacy promotion.

Approximately 90 million adults in the United States read at a level that limits their ability to function as full members of society or limits their ability to meet their basic needs. Reading success as an adult is related to early literacy experiences. Reading aloud by parents is the single most critical factor in a child's reading success later in life. Children in households where there is little exposure to reading are at risk for reading failure even before entering school. As primary health care providers, pediatric nurse practitioners are in a unique position to affect and encourage parental behaviors that foster early literacy development in children. Literacy should become incorporated as an integral component of health promotion for children. Reach Out and Read is a successful literacy program in the United States that can be easily adopted by pediatric nurse practitioners in primary care settings.