NCT01863992.

Question: For children with community-acquired pneumonia discharged from an emergency department, observational unit, or inpatient ward (within 48 hours), is subsequent outpatient treatment with oral amoxicillin at a dose of 35-50 mg/kg/day noninferior to 70-90 mg/kg/day, and for 3 days noninferior to 7 days, with regard to the need for antibiotic retreatment? Findings: In this 2x2 factorial randomized clinical trial of 814 children requiring amoxicillin for community-acquired pneumonia at hospital discharge, antibiotic retreatment within 28 days occurred in 12.6% vs 12.4% of those randomized to lower vs higher doses, respectively, and in 12.5% vs 12.5% of those randomized to 3-day vs 7-day amoxicillin duration. Both comparisons met the prespecified 8% noninferiority margin.Meaning: Among children with community-acquired pneumonia discharged from an emergency department, observational unit, or inpatient ward, further outpatient treatment with oral amoxicillin at a dose of 35-50 mg/kg/day was noninferior to a dose of 70-90 mg/kg/day and for 3 days was noninferior to 7 days with regard to the need for later antibiotic retreatment.

Diaries were returned from 223 children, of whom 146 had had an AURI. The average age was eight years, and there were almost equal numbers of boys and girls. The most frequent symptoms were runny nose, cough, feeling unwell and sore throat. There was a biphasic distribution with systemic symptoms in the first three days characterised by fever, poor sleep, irritability, not playing and headache. By day four, symptoms localising the infection to the upper respiratory tract appeared with runny nose, cough, sore throat and poor appetite; these continued into the second and occasionally third week. Most symptoms lasted for 5-11 days, with a median length for all symptoms of seven days. Symptoms defined by parents tended to be scored less for severity than symptoms defined by children.

Background. In the fall of 2014, a North American outbreak of enterovirus D68 resulted in a significant number of pediatric hospital admissions for respiratory illness throughout North America. This study characterized the clinical presentation and risk factors for a severe clinical course in children admitted to British Columbia Children's Hospital during the 2014 outbreak. Methods. Retrospective chart review of patients with confirmed EV-D68 infection admitted to BCCH with respiratory symptoms in the fall of 2014. Past medical history, clinical presentation, management, and course in hospital was collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Comparison was made between those that did and did not require ICU admission to identify risk factors. Results. Thirty-four patients were included (median age 7.5 years). Fifty-three percent of children had a prior history of wheeze, 32% had other preexisting medical comorbidities, and 15% were previously healthy. Ten children (29%) were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit. The presence of complex medical conditions (excluding wheezing) (P = 0.03) and copathogens was associated with PICU admission (P = 0.02). Conclusions. EV-D68 infection resulted in severe, prolonged presentations of asthma-like illness in the hospitalized pediatric population. Patients with a prior history of wheeze and preexisting medical comorbidities appear to be most severely affected, but the virus can also cause wheezing in previously well children.

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