Detailed data on clinical presentations and outcomes of children with COVID-19 in Europe are still lacking. In this descriptive study, we report on 130 children with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosed by 28 centers (mostly hospitals), in 10 regions in Italy, during the first months of the pandemic. Among these, 67 (51.5%) had a relative with COVID-19 while 34 (26.2%) had comorbidities, with the most frequent being respiratory, cardiac, or neuromuscular chronic diseases. Overall, 98 (75.4%) had an asymptomatic or mild disease, 11 (8.5%) had moderate disease, 11 (8.5%) had a severe disease, and 9 (6.9%) had a critical presentation with infants below 6 months having significantly increased risk of critical disease severity (OR 5.6, 95% CI 1.3 to 29.1). Seventy-five (57.7%) children were hospitalized, 15 (11.5%) needed some respiratory support, and nine (6.9%) were treated in an intensive care unit. All recovered. Conclusion:This descriptive case series of children with COVID-19, mostly encompassing of cases enrolled at hospital level, suggest that COVID-19 may have a non-negligible rate of severe presentations in selected pediatric populations with a relatively high rates of comorbidities. More studies are needed to further understand the presentation and outcomes of children with COVID-19 in children with special needs. What is Known:• There is limited evidence on the clinical presentation and outcomes of children with COVID-19 in Europe, and almost no evidence on characteristics and risk factors of severe cases. What is New:• Among a case series of 130 children, mostly diagnosed at hospital level, and with a relatively high rate (26.2%) of comorbidities, about three-quarter had an asymptomatic or mild disease.• However, 57.7% were hospitalized, 11.5% needed some respiratory support, and 6.9% were treated in an intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVE To report a prospective, multicentre descriptive study designed to determine the prevalence of the diagnosis of prostatitis in male outpatients examined by urologists in Italy, and to further examine the diagnostic evaluation and treatment of patients identified with a clinical diagnosis of prostatitis. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between July 2001 and October 2001, 70 urologists, representing a cross‐section of urological centres in Italy, counted and recorded the overall total of men reported in the clinic and that of patients diagnosed with prostatitis over a 5‐week period. Data on demographics, previous diagnoses, symptoms, physical examination, laboratory data and therapy instituted were collected. Patients with a diagnosis of prostatitis completed questionnaires on symptom frequency and severity, and quality of life. RESULTS In all, 8503 patients were included in the primary outcome analysis; 1148 were identified with prostatitis (12.8%; mean age 47.1 years, range 16–83) with all age ranges equally represented, and 68% had had their first symptom within the last year. The most common presenting symptoms were severe, bothersome urinary frequency, obstructive voiding symptoms, perineal, suprapubic and penile pain or discomfort. The self‐administered questionnaire confirmed that the most frequently reported and most severe symptoms at the time of evaluation were irritative voiding symptoms, perineal and suprapubic pain and discomfort. Over three‐quarters of the patients were dissatisfied with their quality of life. While 98% of the patients had a digital rectal examination and expressed prostatic secretion was successfully recovered in 44%, < 3% of the patients had the traditional Meares‐Stamey four‐glass test. The most common treatment prescribed was drug therapy (not antibiotic). CONCLUSION The prevalence of a clinical diagnosis of prostatitis in urology outpatient practice in Italy was 12.8%. The prevalence, diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of prostatitis reported in this prospective study was very similar to that reported in other retrospective series from other countries.

Our study emphasizes the need for implementing further HAI surveillance to provide the National Health System with proper tools to prevent and manage infection in hospitalized patients.

Pain was reduced or abolished in two-thirds of patients under ketamine therapy; ketamine was effective for patients taking opioids and resulted in few adverse effects.

The in vitro activity of levofloxacin and eight other antimicrobial agents against 60 clinical isolates of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was determined by an agar dilution method using 10(4) and 10(6) cfu/spot inocula. At the lower inoculum, 85.0% of the isolates were susceptible to levofloxacin but only 58.3% were susceptible to ofloxacin; at the higher inoculum, 78.3% were susceptible to levofloxacin and 36.7% to ofloxacin. In time-kill studies, levofloxacin exerted bactericidal activity within 4 h. With ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin bacterial regrowth was observed after 8 h. Levofloxacin may represent an alternative drug in the treatment of infections caused by S. maltophilia.

Acceptance of rotavirus (RV) vaccination may be impacted by several factors including the feasibility of the full schedule administration within the fixed immunization timelines. The human RV vaccine Rotarix (GSK) and the human bovine reassortant vaccine RotaTeq (Merck & Co.) were developed with different posologies (2 doses vs 3 doses respectively), which have both scientific and technical implications. A nonsystematic literature review revealed that, in the Italian context, topics such as time to achieve RV protection in children, number of preventable cases and administration time window, compatibility/ ease of inclusion in the national vaccination calendar, potential overlaps with the peak of natural history of intussusception and adherence to posology could be impacted by the RV vaccine posology. Results suggest that a shorter schedule would allow for greater flexibility of use as well as a greater documented ease of inclusion in the vaccination calendar, thereby reducing potential direct healthcare costs.

The tropical green seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia (VAHL) C. AGARDH (Caulerpales) which is invading the Mediterranean is shown to contain trace amounts of two further novel terpenes, 7,7‐C‐didehydro‐6‐hydroxy‐6,7‐dihydrocaulerpenyne (= (4S, 6S,1E)‐3‐[(Z)‐acetoxymethylidene]‐6‐hydroxy‐11‐methyl‐7‐methylidenedodeca‐1,10‐dien‐8‐yne‐1,4‐diyl diacetate; 3a) and taxifolione (= 6‐methylhept‐5‐en‐3‐yn‐2‐one; 4). The former is the most active of the toxins so far isolated from this seaweed, both as an in vitro inhibitor of the growth of marine bacteria and as a cytotoxic agent toward marine ciliate protists. This suggests a central ecotoxicological role for triacetate 3a as an adjuvant factor in the invasion of the Mediterranean by this seaweed. Moreover, the almost equally toxic 10,11 ‐epoxycaulerpenyne (2) which is scarcely available from Nature for bioassays can now be obtained by peroxy‐acid epoxidation of caulerpenyne (1), along with the 6,7‐epoxycaulerpenynes 6b and 6a. The latter are very labile, 6a giving triacetate 3a, suggesting epoxides to be late biogenetic intermediates in C. taxifolia.

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