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Bacterial skin and soft tissues infections are common in children and frequently do not require systemic antibiotics, especially if lesions are superficial. Careful washing is always indicated in superficial lesions and is often sufficient. Careful evaluation of symptoms (which may be difficult despite the accessibility of the lesions) should be performed before prescription. Therefore, the need for drainage (spontaneous or surgical) should be assessed considering that antibiotics are mostly useless if purulent lesions are drained. Presence of toxinic symptoms (i.e., generalized cutaneous rash, diarrhea, hypotension) are strongly associated with enhanced severity. The bacterial targets for antibiotics are mainly Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and Streptococcus pyogenes. Considering the low incidence of methicillin-resistant SA in France, the French Pediatric Infectious Disease Group recommends the use of amoxicillin + clavulanate as the first-line antibiotic in most children suffering from severe skin infections requiring antibiotic treatment. In patients presenting toxinic symptoms and signs, the adjunction of an antibiotic with antitoxin properties such as clindamycin should be considered., (© 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits réservés.) more...

Infectious diseases are constantly evolving for many reasons. New infectious agents are regularly discovered, mainly because of the development of identification methods, including the molecular tools and mass spectrometry. Changes in the epidemiology of infectious diseases are not always understood, but several factors undoubtedly play an important role, notably the impact of vaccination implementations, the ecological consequences of antibiotic treatments and their excessive use, and the secular epidemiological trends of pathogenic agents. Antibiotic resistance has been recognized as one of the major challenges for humanity and few new antibiotics with potent activity against resistant Gram-negative rods have been developed in recent years. The rationalization of antibiotic treatments is a key for reducing or limiting antimicrobial resistance. This guide takes into account the latest recommendations, the consensus conferences, and the guidelines of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Group of the French Society of Pediatric, the French Infectious Diseases Society, and French official agencies. For each clinical situation, the main bacterial target of the antibiotic treatment, the first-choice antibiotic and the alternative treatment, as well as the most important findings for the diagnosis and treatment of the infection are detailed., (© 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits réservés.) more...

The French 2013 immunization schedule having a goal of simplification with comparable efficacy, has decreased the number of injections and removed the injection performed at three months of age in the general population. Apart from the prevention of invasive pneumococcal infections for which it is recommended to maintain three dose primary immunization, vaccination of premature is not addressed in this new calendar. Can the extremely preterm infants (<33 weeks of gestational age) benefit from this new schedule or should we keep them in three injections schedule? The objective of this paper is to clarify this point through the data available in the literature. Children born prematurely and especially the "extremely premature" born before 33 weeks are at high risk of infections, some of them are preventable by immunization. Although there is no clinical evidence, for pertussis, pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae b, hepatitis B, whatever the immunogenicity criteria, immunogenicity is significantly lower in preterm than in term newborn after 3 doses primary schedule. This lower immunogenicity raises concerns about the transition to two doses, about the ability to give short term protection and booster responses. Given these data, GPIP takes the position for maintaining a primary 3-dose vaccination at 2.3 and 4 months for premature infants less than 33 weeks., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.) more...

Recommendations for the use of diagnostic testing in low respiratory infection in children older than 3 months were produced by the Groupe de Recherche sur les Avancées en Pneumo-Pédiatrie (GRAPP) under the auspices of the French Paediatric Pulmonology and Allergology Society (SP(2)A). The Haute Autorité de santé (HAS) methodology, based on formalized consensus, was used. A first panel of experts analyzed the English and French literature to provide a second panel of experts with recommendations to validate. Only the recommendations are presented here, but the full text is available on the SP(2)A website., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.) more...

ENT and dental surgical procedures are the most common causes of surgery in children: the majority of them (adenoidectomy, tonsillectomy, trans-tympanic tubes, etc.) does not warrant antibiotic prophylaxis (ABP). When ABP is justified, it follows the general rules of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis: a molecule spectrum including the main bacterial targets (and possibly not used in curative treatment), short-term administration, a single injection 30 to 60 minutes before surgical incision. For cataracts, prophylaxis by intracameral cefuroxime must supplant the antibiotic therapy., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.) more...

Vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) is recommended in France at 14 years. The Groupe de Pathologie Infectieuse Pédiatrique de la Société Française de Pédiatrie takes a clear position for advancement of age of vaccination at 11-12 years based on the following arguments: (i) data on the long-term persistence of protective antibodies are reassuring; (ii) these vaccines can be co-administered with vaccines recommended in the current immunization schedule at this age; (iii) actually, nearly 20% of adolescents have had sexual intercourse when the vaccination schedule is finished; (iv) vaccination beyond 14 years increases the risk of occurrence of coincidental autoimmune diseases; (v) the immunogenicity of vaccines against HPV is better when they are administered before age 15; (vi) finally, especially by reducing the number of injections from 3 to 2, the immunization at 11-12 years could improve immunization coverage which is insufficient nowadays., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.) more...

Objective: Fever is a common cause of children visits to emergency units. Clinical evaluation does not always eliminate a bacterial infection. Among blood markers, several publications showed the interest of CRP. This study was undertaken to evaluate correlation between two techniques of CRP, one by usual technique at the laboratory and the other by a rapid test, and to evaluate the impact of this rapid test for febrile children at the emergency room, when a hospitalization was not immediately decided., Material and Methods: The study was undertaken in 2004-2005 in eight emergency paediatric units in Ile-de-France concerning febrile children during two periods. In period A, children had at the same time a CRP dosage through two methods, whereas in period B, only a rapid CRP test was first managed. The test used was NycoCard CRP Single test (Progen Biotechnique)., Results: Between September 2004 and June 2005, 572 children were included, 268 in period A and 304 in period B. Comparison of CRP results by the two methods showed for 247 children (93%) a fairly good linear correlation (r: 0.929). Blood cell count was the most often prescribed test (99.4 vs 10.5%). Conversely to chest radiography, blood culture, fibrinogen and urinary test were significantly most frequent in period A. The average cost of the additional examinations was 2.6 times more important during the first period. Duration of children management in the units was approximately two times shorter when rapid CRP test was used (199.7+/-92.8 vs 103.5+/-98.6 min)., Conclusion: This study shows the interest of rapid CRP test for febrile children in the emergency units, and has to be confirmed in ambulatory paediatric practice. more...