Mortality Associated With Acute Respiratory Infections Among Children at Home.

Background: Numerous deaths in children aged <5 years in the developing world occur at home. Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are thought to play an important role in these deaths. Risk factors and pathogens linked to fatal episodes remain unclear. Methods: A case-control study among low-income children aged <5 years was performed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to define risk factors and viral pathogens among those who died of ARI at home. Results: A total of 278 families of children aged <5 years (of whom 104 died and 174 were healthy controls) participated in the study. A total of 87.5% of ARI-associated deaths occurred among infants aged <12 months. The estimated mortality rate due to ARI among infants was 5.02 deaths/1000 live births. Dying at home from ARI was associated with living in a crowded home (odds ratio [OR], 3.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.41-9.88), having an adolescent mother (OR, 4.89; 95% CI, 1.37-17.38), lacking running water in the home (OR, 4.39; 95% CI, 1.11-17.38), incomplete vaccinations for age (OR, 3.39; 95% CI, 1.20-9.62), admission to a neonatal intensive care unit (OR, 7.17; 95% CI, 2.21-23.27), and no emergency department visit during the ARI episode (OR, 72.32; 95% CI, 4.82-1085.6). The at-home death rate due to respiratory syncytial virus infection among infants was 0.26 deaths/100 live births and that due to influenza was 0.07 deaths/1000 live births. Conclusions: Social vulnerabilities underlie at-home mortality due to ARI. Mortality rates due to RSV and influenza virus infection are high among infants at home and are similar to those reported for hospitalized children.

Mortality due to Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Burden and Risk Factors.

RATIONALE: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most frequent cause of hospitalization and an important cause of death in infants in the developing world. The relative contribution of social, biologic, and clinical risk factors to RSV mortality in low-income regions is unclear. OBJECTIVES: To determine the burden and risk factors for mortality due to RSV in a low-income population of 84,840 infants. METHODS: This was a prospective, population-based, cross-sectional, multicenter study conducted between 2011 and 2013. Hospitalizations and deaths due to severe lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI) were recorded during the RSV season. All-cause hospital deaths and community deaths were monitored. Risk factors for respiratory failure (RF) and mortality due to RSV were assessed using a hierarchical, logistic regression model. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A total of 2,588 (65.5%) infants with severe LRTI were infected with RSV. A total of 157 infants (148 postneonatal) experienced RF or died with RSV. RSV LRTI accounted for 57% fatal LRTI tested for the virus. A diagnosis of sepsis (odds ratio [OR], 17.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 13.14-21.16 for RF) (OR, 119.39; 95% CI, 50.98-273.34 for death) and pneumothorax (OR, 17.15; 95% CI, 13.07-21.01 for RF) (OR, 65.49; 95% CI, 28.90-139.17 for death) were the main determinants of poor outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: RSV was the most frequent cause of mortality in low-income postneonatal infants. RF and death due to RSV LRTI, almost exclusively associated with prematurity and cardiopulmonary diseases in industrialized countries, primarily affect term infants in a developing world environment. Poor outcomes at hospitals are frequent and associated with the cooccurrence of bacterial sepsis and clinically significant pneumothoraxes.

Pequeños grandes clientes: la publicidad de sucedáneos de la leche materna en dos revistas pediátricas de Argentina entre 1977 y 2006 / Small great customers: the advertising of breastmilk substitutes in two Argentinean pediatric journals between 1977 and 2006

Las estrategias de comercialización de los sucedáneos de la leche materna (SLM) han desalentado por décadas la práctica del amamantamiento. Con la sanción del Código Internacional de Comercialización de Sucedáneos de la Leche Materna (CICSLM) por parte de la Organización Mundial de la Salud en 1981, las compañías del sector respondieron tratando de no perder su "clientela". Fueron evaluadas las publicidades de SLM aparecidas en las dos colecciones pediátricas argentinas más relevantes publicadas entre 1977 y 2006. La investigación verificó el hallazgo de publicidad y no la publicación de información "científica y objetiva" tal como el CICSLM exige; solamente el 2,7 por ciento de ellas poseían referencias bibliográficas utilizándose imágenes y mensajes promocionales, siendo el cumplimiento del código del 24,1 por ciento. Con relación a la variedad de productos publicitados, esta pasó de dos tipos de fórmulas antes de 1981 a nueve con posterioridad, mientras que se generaron 17 nuevas indicaciones para su uso. Resaltamos el proceso de medicalización sufrido, el vínculo revistas científicas-empresas de SLM, la carencia de rigor científico en la información brindada y la necesidad de construir legitimidad alrededor de las normas legales.

For decades strategies for marketing of breast milk substitutes (BMS) have discouraged the practice of breastfeeding. With the sanction of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (ICMBS) from the World Health Organization in 1981, sector's companies reacting for not loosing "clients". BMS advertisements and related products which appeared in the two most important pediatric journals in Argentina published between 1977 and 2006, were evaluated. This research found product advertising and not "scientific and objective" information as the ICMBS requires; only 2,7 percent of these advertisements had references, while images and commercial messages were frequently used, being the code compliance of 24,1 percent. Regarding the variety of products advertised, it went from two types of formulas before 1981 to nine, while were generated 17 new indications for its use. We emphasize the process of medicalization suffered, the link between scientific journals and companies of BMS, the lack of scientific rigor in the information provided to health care professionals and the need to legitimize legal standards sanctioned.