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The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in India is among the highest in the world. Antimicrobial use in inpatient settings is an important driver of resistance, but is poorly characterized, particularly in hospitalized children. In this study, conducted as part of the Global Antimicrobial Resistance, Prescribing, and Efficacy in Neonates and Children (GARPEC) project, we examined the prevalence of and indications of antimicrobial use, as well as antimicrobial agents used among hospitalized children by conducting four point prevalence surveys in six hospitals between February 2016 and February 2017. A total of 681 children were hospitalized in six hospitals across all survey days, and 419 (61.5%) were prescribed one or more antimicrobials (antibacterials, antivirals, antifungals). Antibacterial agents accounted for 90.8% (547/602) of the total antimicrobial prescriptions, of which third-generation cephalosporins (3GCs) accounted for 38.9% (213/547) and penicillin plus enzyme inhibitor combinations accounted for 14.4% (79/547). Lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) was the most common indication for prescribing antimicrobials (149 prescriptions; 24.8%). Although national guidelines recommend the use of penicillin and combinations as first-line agents for LRTI, 3GCs were the most commonly prescribed antibacterial agents (55/149 LRTI prescriptions; 36.9%). In conclusion, 61.5% of hospitalized children were on at least one antimicrobial agent, with excessive use of 3GCs. Hence there is an opportunity to limit their inappropriate use.

Promotion of appropriate and safe drugs in children is the need of the hour globally. Pediatric population by itself is a spectrum of different physiologies with significant variation in pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. Unfortunately, 50–90% of drugs used in children today have never been actually studied in this population, and the results of drug studies done in adults are often extrapolated for use in children. Many medicines in pediatrics are off label or unlicensed. There is a spurt in drug resistance due to the overzealous prescription of antimicrobials not indicated, such as, using inadequate dosage or duration of drug regime leading to partially treated infections, using the wrong antimicrobial due to ignorance of causative organism, and finally using indigenous, irrational combinations. Availability of properly labeled and safe pediatric formulations, regular audit by pharmacists, judicious prescriptions, proper counseling about drug administration, surveillance of adverse effects, and pediatric drug trials can be the best possible interventions to offer appropriate medicines to children and thereby save millions of lives.

Influenza continues to baffle humans by its constantly changing nature. The twenty-first century has witnessed considerable advances in the understanding of the influenza viral pathogenesis, its synergy with bacterial infections and diagnostic methods. However, challenges continue: to find a less expensive and more reliable point-of-care test for use in developing countries, to produce more efficacious antiviral drugs, to explore ways to combat emerging antiviral resistance and to develop vaccines that can either be produced in a shorter production time or can overcome the need for annual matching with the circulating influenza strains. Most importantly for India, as a nation that suffered the highest mortality in the influenza pandemic 1918, there is an urgent need to gear up our existing preparedness for the next pandemic which is capable to hit at any moment in time.

Background: While there have been studies in adults reporting discordant empiric antibiotic treatment associated with poor outcomes, this area is relatively unexplored in children and neonates despite evidence of increasing resistance to recommended first-line treatment regimens. Methods: Patient characteristics, antibiotic treatment, microbiology, and 30-day all-cause outcome from children <18 years with blood-culture-confirmed bacterial bloodstream infections (BSI) were collected anonymously using REDCap™ through the Global Antibiotic Prescribing and Resistance in Neonates and Children network from February 2016 to February 2017. Concordance of early empiric antibiotic treatment was determined using European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing interpretive guidelines. The relationship between concordance of empiric regimen and 30-day mortality was investigated using multivariable regression. Results: Four hundred fifty-two children with blood-culture-positive BSI receiving early empiric antibiotics were reported by 25 hospitals in 19 countries. Sixty percent (273/452) were under the age of 2 years. S. aureus, E. coli, and Klebsiella spp. were the most common isolates, and there were 158 unique empiric regimens prescribed. Fifteen percent (69/452) of patients received a discordant regimen, and 7.7% (35/452) died. Six percent (23/383) of patients with concordant regimen died compared with 17.4% (12/69) of patients with discordant regimen. Adjusting for age, sex, presence of comorbidity, unit type, hospital-acquired infections, and Gram stain, the odds of 30-day mortality were 2.9 (95% confidence interval: 1.2–7.0; P = 0.015) for patients receiving discordant early empiric antibiotics. Conclusions: Odds of mortality in confirmed pediatric BSI are nearly 3-fold higher for patients receiving a discordant early empiric antibiotic regimen. The impact of improved concordance of early empiric treatment on mortality, particularly in critically ill patients, needs further evaluation.

HighlightsApproximately half (51.6%) of NICU babies received at least one antimicrobial agent.Amikacin was the most commonly prescribed antimicrobial agent followed by meropenem.The recommended first-line antimicrobial agents, ampicillin and gentamicin were rarely prescribed for community acquired neonatal sepsis.

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Genetic variants of vaccine poliovirus type 2, imported from an unknown source, were detected in waste waters in Jerusalem, London and New York in early 2022. Wild poliovirus type 2 was globally eradicated in 1999, but vaccine virus type 2 continued for 16 more years; routine use of the vaccine was discontinued in 2016 and reintroduced occasionally on purpose. As an unintended consequence, type 2 vaccine virus variants (circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses, cVDPVs) that mimic wild viruses’ contagiousness and neurovirulence, have been emerging and spreading. To illustrate, in just the past four years (2018–2021), 2296 children developed cVDPV polio in 35 low-income countries. Many assume that virus transmission is via the faecal–oral route. Sustained virus transmission was documented in London and New York, in spite of high standards of sanitation and hygiene. Here, virus transmission cannot be attributed to faecal contamination of food or drinking water (for faecal–oral transmission). Hence, contagious transmission can only be explained by inhalation of droplets/aerosol containing virus shed in pharyngeal fluids (respiratory transmission), as was the classical teaching of polio epidemiology. If transmission efficiency of VDPV is via the respiratory route where hygiene is good, it stands to reason that it is the same case in countries with poor hygiene, since poor hygiene cannot be a barrier against respiratory transmission. By extrapolation, the extreme transmission efficiency of wild polioviruses must also have been due to their ability to exploit respiratory route transmission. These lessons have implications for global polio eradication. It was as a result of assuming faecal–oral transmission that eradication was attempted with live attenuated oral polio vaccine (OPV), ignoring its safety problems and very low efficacy in low-income countries. Inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) is completely safe and highly efficacious in protecting children against polio, with just three routine doses. Protecting all children from polio must be the interim goal of eradication, until poliovirus circulation dies out under sustained immunisation pressure. OPV should be discontinued under cover of immunity induced by IPV to stop the emergence of new lineages of VDPVs, not only type 2, but also types 1 and 3, to expedite the completion of polio eradication.