Antibiotic Prescribing in Outpatient Children: A Cohort From a Clinical Data Warehouse.

AIM: To characterize antibiotic (ab) prescriptions in children. METHODS: Evaluation of outpatient ab prescriptions in a 3-year cohort of children in primary care using a data warehouse (Massachusetts Health Disparities Repository) by comorbid conditions, demographics, and clinical indication. RESULTS: A total of 15 208 children with nearly 120 000 outpatient visits were included. About one third had a comorbid condition (most commonly asthma). Among the 30 000 ab prescriptions, first-line penicillins and macrolides represented the most frequent ab (70%), followed by cephalosporins (16%). Comorbid children had 54.3 ab prescriptions/100 child-years versus 38.8 in children without comorbidity; ab prescription was higher in urinary tract infections (>60% of episodes), otitis, lower respiratory tract infections (>50%), especially in comorbid children and children under 2 year old. Ab prescriptions were significantly associated with younger age, emergency room visit, comorbid children, and acute infections. DISCUSSION: A clinical data warehouse could help in designing appropriate antimicrobial stewardship programs and represent a potential assessment tool.

Brief Client-Centered Motivational and Behavioral Intervention to Promote HPV Vaccination in a Hard-to-Reach Population: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective To evaluate the impact of a client-centered behavioral intervention (Brief Negotiated Interviewing) on mothers' human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine knowledge and vaccination initiation for their adolescent daughters. Methods We randomized mothers to intervention (n = 100) and control (n = 100) groups, and followed them over 12 months. Electronic medical records were reviewed to determine vaccination status. The primary outcome was receipt of the first vaccine. The secondary outcome was HPV vaccine knowledge among mothers. Results Brief Negotiated Interviewing intervention mothers demonstrated increased knowledge about HPV (pre/post mean score of 5 to 10 out of a possible 11; P < .001) and significantly higher mean knowledge scores (10 vs 6, P < .001) than control mothers. However, initiation and completion rates of the vaccine were not significantly different between groups. Conclusions Increasing HPV vaccine knowledge did not translate into increased vaccine uptake or completion of vaccination series. Future intervention must explore vaccine reminders to increase HPV vaccination rates.

Frequency of pertussis in children with prolongued cough.

To determine the frequency of pertussis in children < or = 16 y who had prolonged cough (> or = 14 d), a prospective study was conducted at an outpatient clinic of a paediatric hospital. Nasopharyngeal swabs were taken for culture and nucleic acid testing by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Bordetella pertussis. Immunoglobulin A and immunoglobulin G antibodies against pertussis toxin (PT) were tested by ELISA in paired serum samples. A total of 148 patients were recruited during 1 y. Pertussis was detected in 25 (16.9%) patients with at least 1 of the tests. PCR was positive in 12 patients, and 9 cases was diagnosed serologically. Both PCR and serology were positive in 4 children. Duration of cough was longer in the patients with pertussis (median 33 vs 20, p = 0.03). Seropositivity of pertussis toxin was higher in pertussis negative patients during enrollment (24% vs 65%, p = 0.005). From the results of this study, B. pertussis seems to be common in our population despite high immunization rates with whole cell vaccine. Although the duration of cough is defined as longer than 21 d in some studies for pertussis case definition criteria, it was shorter than this in 3 of our cases.

Effect of monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) on T-helper cells when administered as an adjuvant with pneumocococcal-CRM197 conjugate vaccine in healthy toddlers.

As new vaccines are developed, novel adjuvants may play an important role in eliciting an effective immune response. We evaluated the safety and adjuvant properties of monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL in 129 healthy toddlers immunized with two doses of nine-valent pneumococcal-CRM(197) protein conjugate vaccine (PCV9) combined with 10, 25, or 50 micro g of MPL with or without alum (AlPO(4)). Vaccine-specific humoral and cell-mediated responses were examined following the second dose of study vaccine. All doses of MPL were well-tolerated and a dose-dependent effect of MPL on specific cellular responses was observed. The 10 micro g MPL dose significantly enhanced CRM(197)-specific T-cell proliferation (P=0.02) and interferon-gamma (INF-gamma) production (P=0.009) compared to responses of controls who received PCV9 with AlPO(4). In contrast, CRM(197)-specific T-cell proliferation and interferon-gamma production of the 50 micro g MPL/AlPO(4) group were decreased when compared to controls although these differences did not reach statistical significance. IL-5 and IL-13 responses after immunization showed a similar pattern with increased production in the 10 micro g MPL group and decreased production in the 50 micro g MPL/AlPO(4) group compared to controls. There were no differences in serum IgG antibody concentrations to the nine vaccine pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides and carrier protein between the MPL-containing and control vaccine groups. These findings demonstrate a dose-dependent effect of MPL on T-helper cell type 1 (TH-1) responses to the carrier protein and also suggest an effect on T-helper cell type 2 (TH-2) responses.