Issue highlights

Abstract

Syltern and Markestad surveyed Norwegian paediatric residents about whether they would chose life-sustaining treatment if their own child was born extremely premature at 22–26 weeks of gestation.1 The vast majority (94%) of the 80 residents who responded said that they would opt out of life-sustaining treatment if their baby was born as early as 22 weeks. Nearly three-quarters (73%) would also have opted out of such treatment at 23 weeks. A randomised trial showed that Israeli and Palestinian youths who took part in an eight-session dialogue intervention showed more empathy and less hostile behaviour than controls, when they met people on the opposite side of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict.2 Differences were also seen in brain markers for empathy and prejudice, as well as oxytocin and cortisol levels. The intervention group's peace-building attitudes persisted 7 years later. Paalanne et al. investigated the duration of clinical symptoms associated with various respiratory viruses in 737 acutely ill children in Finland.3 They found that 20%–30% of the children experienced clinical symptoms for more than 14 days after the onset of an infection, but only 2%–3% had symptoms that lasted for more than 28 days. Detecting both viral and bacterial infections appeared to increase the duration of symptoms. Another paper by Paalanne et al. looked at how long children were absent from day care or school, and parents were unable to go to work, during children's respiratory infections.4 Korppi comments on the findings.5 Sepsis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Early diagnosis is the key, but is difficult due to nonspecific signs. Honoré et al. evaluated a noninvasive machine learning-based algorithm that used vital signs and demographic factors to detect sepsis in neonates up to 24 h before the first clinical suspicion.6 The subjects were 325 hospitalised term and preterm infants. The authors found that the algorithm provided a useful predictive value for neonatal sepsis detection. Combining multiple vital signs improved the performance, compared with just heart rate characteristics. Paediatricians should make their voices heard in the abortion debate, because their mission is to protect the physical, mental and social well-being of their patients. That is the view expressed by Adams et al in a perspective paper.7 The authors believe that laws limiting access to safe and legal abortions during pregnancy inherently affect existing and future children. They also point out that children are exposed to the sequalae of any issues that jeopardise the health and welfare of their parents. Figures: istockphoto