Oseltamivir was linked to a 31% lower hazard of ICU admission in children hospitalised with influenza

The edition in brief

In 6,044 children hospitalised with laboratory-confirmed influenza across 13 US states, oseltamivir treatment, analysed as a time-dependent exposure, was associated with a lower hazard of ICU admission (aHR 0.69, 0.60 to 0.80) and a shorter stay. About half had a comorbidity, most often asthma. The PAEAN trial randomised 313 cooled infants with moderate or severe hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy to erythropoietin or placebo; death or moderate to severe disability at two years was 34.1% versus 28.7% (RR 1.19, 0.84 to 1.68), with no benefit and no safety signal. In a trial of 117 people with peanut plus at least two other food allergies, omalizumab achieved the tolerance target more often than multiallergen oral immunotherapy (36% vs 19%), largely because half the immunotherapy group dropped out, often for adverse events. A commercial paediatric sepsis alert tested in 166,943 emergency visits identified only 36% of sepsis cases, with a positive predictive value of 3%, and performed worse in children under five. The pearl covers how to collect urine in a febrile infant.