Like most U.S. hospitals, Cincinnati Children's is affected by the IV fluid shortage caused by damage to Baxter International's North Carolina production facility during Hurricane Helene. Our teams will continue to watch this situation and will provide any updates as needed.
This study describes the importance of immunization in pregnancy to protect both the mother and infant. It points out that pregnant women are generally left out of vaccine research, and the lack of data reduces their access to effective prevention. There is a need for rigorous evaluations to generate maternal disease burden data, which will allow implementation of policies. Collaboration between lower, middle, and high income countries to gather the data and collaborate on evaluation of interventions is crucial.
Vaccine coverage surveys usually provide information regarding the percent of children immunized. This was a population-based cohort study that followed Nepalese infants prospectively every week from birth to 6 months to assess timing of immunization. It showed that the date of immunization is often substantially delayed, meaning that infants are not protected in early infancy. We suggest that standard vaccine coverage data should report both the percentage immunized, as well as the age of receipt of vaccine.
Vitamin D is increasingly recognized for its role in pregnancy and deficiency may associate with maternal and neonatal complications such as small-for-gestational-age. Identification of racial disparity in neonatal vitamin D deficiency and its association with small-for-gestational age can lead to targeted prenatal vitamin D supplementation to reduce neonatal vitamin D deficiency and improve perinatal outcome.
Researchers associate vitamin D deficiency with illness severity and longer hospital stay in critically ill hospitalized children. This study among critically ill children admitted to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in South India, demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency on admission is associated with higher severity of illness score, need for cardiovascular and ventilator support, and suggests that evaluation of effect of vitamin D supplementation among critically ill children warrant study.