Objective-To estimate changes in the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and the reported diagnoses of asthma, eczema, and hay fever in primary school children in Aberdeen between 1964 and 1989.Design-Determination of incidence prevalence and prevalence from survey data.Setting-Aberdeen, Scotland. Participants-2743 primary school children (aged 8-13) from 1964 and 3942 from 1989.Main outcome measures -Survey data on whether, according to the parent or guardian, the child wheezed or was troubled with shortness of breath; the number of episodes of breathlessness in the past year; and whether asthma, eczema, or hay fever had ever been diagnosed.Results-Questionnaires were completed by the parents of 2510 children in 1964 and 3403 children in 1989. The prevalence of wheeze rose from 10-4% in 1964 to 19-8% in 1989, and the prevalence of episodes of shortness of breath increased from 5-4% to 10-0%. In both surveys wheeze and shortness of breath were more prevalent in boys than in girls. The reported diagnosis of asthma rose from 4-1% to 10-2%, hay fever from 3-2% to 11-9%, and eczema from 5.3% to 12%. The proportion of boys suffering from eczema rose from 47-7% to 60-0%. Hay fever showed a similar increase, from 49-4% to 60-1%, in boys over the 25 year period. Though the parents of a higher proportion ofchildren with wheeze were aware of the diagnosis of asthma in 1989, because ofthe increased prevalence ofwheeze the absolute number ofparents ofwheezy children who were not aware of a diagnosis of asthma increased from 7-4% to 9-6% of the population studied.Conclusion-The higher diagnosis rate for asthma is due not simply to changes in diagnostic fashion but reflects an increase over the past 25 years in the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, which in turn may reflect a more general change in the prevalence of atopy, the increase in which was particularly noticeable in boys. This increase explains some of the increase in hospital admission rates for children with asthma.

Rotavirus gastroenteritis places high demands on European health care systems, accounting for 56.2% of hospitalizations and 32.8% of emergency department visits because of community-acquired acute gastroenteritis in children aged <5 years. Most community-acquired rotavirus gastroenteritis occurs in children aged <2 years, and a high proportion occurs in infants aged <6 months. Cases were also observed among very young infants <2 months of age. Rotavirus vaccination is expected to have a major impact in reducing morbidity and the pressure on hospital services in Europe.

No abstract

Objective: To ascertain whether therapeutic equivalence exists for the treatment of paediatric community acquired pneumonia by the oral and intravenous (IV) routes. Methods: A multicentre pragmatic randomised controlled non-blinded equivalence trial was undertaken in eight paediatric centres in England (district general and tertiary hospitals). Equivalence was defined as no more than a 20% difference between treatments of the proportion meeting the primary outcome measure at any time. 246 children who required admission to hospital and had fever, respiratory symptoms or signs and radiologically confirmed pneumonia were included in the study. Exclusion criteria were wheeze, oxygen saturations ,85% in air, shock requiring .20 ml/kg fluid resuscitation, immunodeficiency, pleural effusion at presentation requiring drainage, chronic lung condition (excluding asthma), penicillin allergy and age ,6 months. The patients were randomised to receive oral amoxicillin for 7 days (n = 126) or IV benzyl penicillin (n = 120). Children in the IV group were changed to oral amoxicillin after a median of six IV doses and received 7 days of antibiotics in total. The predefined primary outcome measure was time for the temperature to be ,38˚C for 24 continuous hours and oxygen requirement to cease. Secondary outcomes were time in hospital, complications, duration of oxygen requirement and time to resolution of illness.

The Ceprano calvarium represents one of the most important sources of information about both the dynamics of the earliest hominid dispersal toward Europe and the evolution of the genus Homo in the early‐to‐middle Pleistocene. In this paper, the midsagittal vault profile and the 3D frontal bone morphology of Ceprano are investigated comparatively, using landmark coordinates and Procrustes superimposition. In fact, despite the fact that the skull appears partially distorted by diagenetic pressures (thus precluding a comprehensive landmark‐based analysis), some aspects of the overall morphology are suitable for consideration in terms of geometric morphometrics. The midsagittal profile shows an archaic shape, comparable with the H. ergaster/erectus range of variation because of the fronto‐parietal flattening, the development of the supraorbital and nuchal structures, and the occurrence of a slightly larger occipital bone. By contrast, the frontal bone displays a derived 3D shape that, mostly because of the widening of the frontal squama, appears comparable with the Afro‐European variation of the Middle Pleistocene (i.e., H. heidelbergensis/rhodesiensis). Taking into account the unique morphological pattern displayed by Ceprano, its role as a link between early Homo and the Middle Pleistocene populations of Europe and Africa is not falsified. Thus, when aspects of the Ceprano's morphology are described within the analytical framework provided by geometric morphometrics, the relationships between Ceprano and the subsequent Afro‐European fossil record are emphasized, suggesting the occurrence of an ancestral stock of H. heidelbergensis/rhodesiensis that is properly represented by the Italian specimen. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.