Current focus on infectious diseases in childhood^☆

Despite the significant decrease in child mortality in Brazil in recent decades, and the great advances in the immunization program, infectious diseases still occupy a prominent place among public health problems.

The mortality of Brazilian children under 5 years old decreased by 67.6% during a 25-year period, between 1990 and 2015; however, among the top ten causes of death in 2015, several infectious diseases still occupy a prominent place.¹

The main component of under-5 mortality in children is neonatal mortality.¹ In a recent estimate of causes of neonatal mortality involving four million deaths worldwide, infectious causes ranked first, accounting for 35% of the total.²

These data are already enough to justify the importance of choosing the topic of infection for the present supplement. Here we will address neonatal sepsis, septic shock, diarrhea, and encephalitis, which all are important causes of child mortality.

We did not forget the arbovirus infections and among them, the Zika virus, which caused a national epidemic of microcephaly, especially in the Brazilian Northeast region³; the community pneumonias, which, globally, are a frequent cause of under-5 mortality⁴; tuberculosis, which remains prevalent in our country⁵; and opportunistic infections, osteoarticular infections, and urinary tract infections,which are so frequently observed in outpatients.

We could not fail to address in an article the number one item of the “Choosing Wisely” campaign of the American Academy of Pediatrics: “Antibiotics should not be used for viral respiratory diseases” (sinusitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, and bronchiolitis).⁶

Thus, I hope readers will enjoy this issue and get an update on the current focus on infectious diseases in childhood.

• ☆
  Please cite this article as: Procianoy RS. Current focus on infectious diseases in childhood. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2020;96(S1):1.

References

• ¹
  França EB, Lansky S, Rego MA, Malta DC, França JS, Teixeira R, et al. Leading causes of child mortality in Brazil, in 1990 and 2015: estimates from the Global Burden of Disease study. Rev Bras Epidemiol. 2017;20:46-60.
• ²
  Lawn JE, Wilczynska-Ketende K, Cousens SN. Estimating the causes of 4 million neonatal deaths in the year 2000. Int J Epidemiol. 2006;35:706-18.
• ³
  Lowe R, Barcellos C, Brasil P, Cruz OG, Honório NA, Kuper H, et al. The Zika Virus Epidemic in Brazil: From Discovery to Future Implications. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018;15:pii:E96.
• ⁴
  Haq IJ, Battersby AC, Eastham K, McKean M. Community acquired pneumonia in children. BMJ. 2017;356:j686.
• ⁵
  Carvalho AC, Cardoso CA, Martire TM, Migliori GB, Sant’Anna CC. Epidemiological aspects, clinical manifestations, and prevention of pediatric tuberculosis from the perspective of the End TB Strategy. J Bras Pneumol. 2018;44:134-44.
• ⁶
  American Academy of Pediatrics. Ten things physicians and patients should question. [Cited 15 Nov 2019]. Available at: https://www.choosingwisely.org/societies/american-academy-of-pediatrics/
  » https://www.choosingwisely.org/societies/american-academy-of-pediatrics/

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  17 Apr 2020
• Date of issue
  Mar-Apr 2020