Home visits after discharge for preterm babies improved breastfeeding, and intensive visits with kangaroo care likely cut deaths

The edition in brief

A Cochrane review of 35 randomised trials of home visits after discharge for preterm and low-birthweight infants found home visits likely increase breastfeeding at six months (RR 1.26) compared with none, with little effect on development or growth. Where home visits are already standard, more intensive visits including community-initiated kangaroo mother care likely reduced mortality at six months (HR 0.75), evidence that came from a single large trial in India. A New Zealand case series of 39 children with pneumococcal haemolytic uraemic syndrome found two thirds of cases since 2020, nearly all serotype 19A, mostly after complicated pneumonia and mostly in vaccinated children; 79% needed dialysis and 43% of survivors with follow-up had chronic kidney disease. A meta-analysis of 39 cohorts found childhood, adolescent and young adult cancer survivors had about twice the cardiovascular risk of their peers, highest in those treated as children, persisting beyond 20 years. A US quality-improvement collaborative found clinicians kept starting phototherapy below treatment thresholds for neonatal jaundice despite pathways, weekend follow-up and home phototherapy.