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Isolates of Coxsackievirus A6 (Cox A6) is increasing clinically in 2009 in Taiwan but detailed clinical features of Cox A6 infections in children have not been reported. This study is to define clinical manifestations and laboratory findings of Cox A6 infection in children.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is causing life-threatening hand-foot-mouth disease in Asia. In Taiwan, EV71 epidemics with different predominant genotypes occurred in 1998 (C2), 2000–2001 (B4), and 2004–2005 (C4). This genotype replacement may have important implications for vaccine development and prediction of epidemics. A nationwide EV71 outbreak occurred again in 2008, which provided a unique opportunity to characterize clinical, virologic, and serologic features of this epidemic.

Coxsackievirus A2 (Cox A2) was the predominant serotype in the enterovirus outbreak in Taiwan, 2008. However, detailed clinical features of Cox A2 infection have not been reported. In this study, we compared Cox A2 with enterovirus 71 (EV71) in terms of clinical manifestation and epidemiology during the 2008 enterovirus outbreak in Taiwan.

Acute infectious diarrhea is a major cause of childhood morbidity and economic burden for families. We evaluate the clinical, microbiologic, and immunologic effects of probiotics in acute infectious diarrhea.

ABSTRACTAmong 3,027 nontyphoidal Salmonella entericaisolates identified between January 1999 and December 2002 in a medical center in northern Taiwan, 31 were resistant to the extended-spectrum cephalosporin ceftriaxone (1.02% [31/3,027]), including 2 in 1999 (0.36% [2/549]), 13 in 2000 (1.49% [13/870]), 7 in 2001 (0.78% [7/893]), and 9 in 2002 (1.26% [9/715]). Sixteen of these isolates belonged to Salmonellaserogroup B, nine belonged to serogroup C, four belonged to serogroup D, and two belonged to serogroup E. The majority were from stool cultures. The mechanism of resistance was investigated for eight isolates, including three S. entericaserovar Typhimurium, one S. entericaserovar Wagenia, one S. entericaserovar Senftenberg, one S. entericaserovar Derby, one S. entericaserovar Panama, and one S. entericaserovar Duesseldorf isolate. All eight patients from whom these isolates were recovered had community-acquired infections. All eight isolates were resistant to ampicillin, ceftriaxone, and cefotaxime but susceptible to imipenem and ciprofloxacin. Ceftriaxone resistance was due to the production of the CMY-2 AmpC ß-lactamase by seven isolates and the CTX-M-14 ß-lactamase by the remaining isolate. Both ß-lactamase genes were carried on conjugative plasmids. In a 2.5-kb region encompassing the blaCMY-2gene, at nucleotide 49 upstream of the start codon of blaCMY-2, three of the seven blaCMY-2-positive isolates had an A nucleotide and four had a G nucleotide. In conclusion, the ceftriaxone resistance of nontyphoidal Salmonellaisolates in our hospital was attributed to the CTX-M-14 and CMY-2 ß-lactamases.

Seventy-four of the 2651 patients (2.8%) with influenza aged <18 years had signs or symptoms of central nervous system dysfunction presenting to the hospital. None had oseltamivir exposure before the onset of central nervous system dysfunction. Seventeen children received oseltamivir therapy after admission and no significant difference between administration of oseltamivir and outcome was observed (P0.1512 by Fisher exact test).