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Tobacco has long been known to be one of the greatest causes of morbidity and mortality in the adults, but the effects on the foetus and young children, which are lifelong, have been less well appreciated. Developing from this are electronic nicotine delivery systems or vapes, promulgated as being less harmful than tobacco. Nicotine itself is toxic to the foetus, with permanent effects on lung structure and function. Most vapes contain nicotine, but they also contain many other compounds which are inhaled and for which there are no toxicity studies. They also contain known toxic substances, whose use is banned by European Union legislation. Accelerating numbers of young people are vaping, and this does not reflect an exchange of vapes for cigarettes. The acute toxicity of e-cigarettes is greater than that of tobacco, and includes acute lung injury, pulmonary haemorrhage and eosinophilic and lipoid pneumonia. Given the worse acute toxicity, it should be impossible to be complacent about medium and long term effects of vaping. Laboratory studies have demonstrated changes in lung proteomics and the innate immune system with vaping, some but not all of which overlap with tobacco. It would be wrong to consider vapes as a weaker form of tobacco, they have their own toxicity. Children and young people are being targeted by the vaping industry (which is largely the same as the tobacco industry), including on-line, and unless an efficient legislative program is put in place, a whole new generation of nicotine addicts will result.

Hintergrund: Mehr als eine Milliarde Menschen leiden an chronischen Atemwegserkrankungen wie Asthma, COPD, Rhinitis und Rhinosinusitis. Diese verursachen enorme Belastungen und gelten als schwerwiegende nicht übertragbare Erkrankungen. Viele Patienten sind noch unbehandelt und die Kosten der Untätigkeit sind nicht akzeptabel. Am 23. März 2018 fand in Vilnius eine Konferenz unter der Schirmherrschaft des Gesundheitsministeriums und verschiedener wissenschaftlicher Fachgesellschaften statt, auf der multisektorale Versorgungswege vorgeschlagen wurden, die angeleitetes Selbstmanagement, mHealth und Luftverschmutzung bei der Versorgung bestimmter chronischer Atemwegserkrankungen (Rhinitis, chronische Rhinosinusitis, Asthma und COPD) einschließen. Das Treffen schloss mit der Erklärung von Vilnius, die von den Teilnehmern des EU-Gipfels zu chronischen Atemwegserkrankungen unter der Federführung von Euforea entwickelt wurde. Schlussfolgerung: Die Erklärung von Vilnius ist ein wichtiger Schritt im Kampf gegen die weltweite Luftverschmutzung und ihre Auswirkungen für Patienten mit chronischen Atemwegserkrankungen und sie spielt im Hinblick auf die EU-Gesundheitsstrategie eine wichtige Rolle, da sie einen Zusatznutzen zu dem bereits vorhandenen Wissen über die öffentliche Gesundheit liefert.

Following publication of the original article [1], in issue was identified with distinguishing the 1st from the 41st authors, both named ‘A. Valiulis’. This caused errors with correctly linking these authors on third party indexing websites. The author names for the 1st and 41st author have been expanded to Arunas Valiulis and Algirdas Valiulis in the author list of this Correction article, in order to circumvent the linking errors. In addition, the presentation of affiliation 1 has been corrected. Affiliation 1 was originally presented as ‘Department of Public Health, Clinic of Children’s Diseases, and Institute of Health Sciences, Vilnius University Institute of Clinical Medicine, Vilnius, Lithuania.’ This affiliation is corrected in the affiliation list of this Correction article to ‘Department of Public Health, Institute of Health Sciences, and Clinic of Children’s Diseases, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius, Lithuania’.

Background Over 1 billion people suffer from chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD, rhinitis and rhinosinusitis. They cause an enormous burden and are considered as major non-communicable diseases. Many patients are still uncontrolled and the cost of inaction is unacceptable. A meeting was held in Vilnius, Lithuania (March 23, 2018) under the patronage of the Ministry of Health and several scientific societies to propose multisectoral care pathways embedding guided self-management, mHealth and air pollution in selected chronic respiratory diseases (rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, asthma and COPD). The meeting resulted in the Vilnius Declaration that was developed by the participants of the EU Summit on chronic respiratory diseases under the leadership of Euforea. Conclusion The Vilnius Declaration represents an important step for the fight against air pollution in chronic respiratory diseases globally and has a clear strategic relevance with regard to the EU Health Strategy as it will bring added value to the existing public health knowledge.

Introduction: The “Child Certificate” program, launched in Armenia in 2011, made hospitalization for children less than seven years free in order to improve access to hospitalization, reduce out-of-pocket expenses and ensure Universal Health Coverage. We aimed to estimate trends in the number of outpatient and hospitalized acute respiratory infection (ARI) cases and related under-five mortality. Methodology: Cross-sectional study using data from national databases before (2008-2011) and after (2012-2017) Program implementation. The diagnosis of ARI was based on the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10). Results: The average hospitalization per 1000 children under 14 and infants increased by 85% and 75% respectively, compared with the period before the introduction of the Program, while the frequency of outpatient visits remained unchanged. The ARI-related mortality in children less than five years and in infants decreased by 11% and 19%, respectively. Financial allocations for ARI-associated hospitalizations amounted to 2.1 billion Armenian drams in 2011 and increased to 3.3 billion drams in 2016 (an increase of 57%). For pneumonia, this increase was 108% (from 0.35 to 0.72 billion). Conclusions: The introduction of free hospitalization for ARI led to an increase in the hospitalization rates. There was a favorable decline in under-five mortality and an exponential increase in financial allocations. The reasons for hospitalization should be investigated to ensure rational hospitalization with parallel improvement of primary care to reduce delayed presentations. It is necessary to find ways addressing the growing financial allocations for ARI-associated hospitalization.

The health of children and adolescents of Armenia has been affected by various socioeconomic, environmental, educational, and behavioral factors, demonstrating trends typical for both developed and developing countries. Key issues to be addressed by Armenian pediatricians are child mortality, malnutrition, and growth failure in the early years and overweight in later years. The case of Armenia illustrates how countries in transition are currently tackling both "old" problems (mortality and malnutrition) and "new" emerging morbidities (chronic diseases and adolescent health problems) based on social and health determinants, but the financing of the health system is far from satisfactory. Lessons of Armenia indicate the need for more cooperation between general practitioners and pediatricians at a primary care level. In addition, a better balance between inpatient and outpatient care could be achieved, which is not yet the case. Nevertheless, the overall performance of the Armenian child health care system can be considered satisfactory when bearing in mind the limitation of resources. Among the successful factors are those inherited from the Soviet period health system, including key institutions such as rural health posts and health centers, city polyclinics, and hospitals. These institutions mostly meet the needs of Armenian children and families today.