Making severe RSV uncommon: Experts map the prevention playbook - Contemporary Pediatrics

News|Articles|October 22, 2026 A Contemporary Pediatrics Peer Exchange panel reviews RSV risk, testing, maternal vaccination, and long-acting monoclonal antibodies, and where infants still slip through the cracks. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has long been a fixture of the winter pediatric ward. With maternal vaccination and 2 long-acting monoclonal antibodies now available, a panel of pediatric infectious disease specialists says severe RSV in infants can become uncommon, if practices close the gaps in delivery. The discussion was moderated by Flor M. Munoz, MD, MSc, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Panelists were C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee; Eric Simões, MD, of the University of Colorado Anschutz in Aurora; and Tina Tan, MD, FAAP, FIDSA, FPIDS, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, and editor-in-chief of Contemporary Pediatrics. Every infant is at riskRSV typically circulates in the US from October to April, but seasons start earlier and last longer in the Southeast, beginning as early as June in Florida, Tan said.

Long-term care (LTC) facilities are actually people’s homes. It’s where many Canadians live out their final days. But not all the residents in LTC receive the specialized care they need. Often seniors’ behaviour that could be the result of past traumas is written off as a symptom of dementia. Care aides need training to identify the difference and provide trauma-informed care. Accrediting agencies and Canada’s new national long-term care standards include providing trauma-informed care. But that standard is voluntary. It must be made mandatory.

Spleen tissue from a mouse without PHF19 (left) and a mouse with normal PHF19 function (right). Dense clusters of immune cells sit within blood-rich regions in pink. Without PHF19, cells are altered in their differentiation process. Image credit: Gianni Gamarra/Centro de Regulación Genómica Experiments with mice and patient data reveal new genes that can predict acute myeloid leukaemia outcome

Children who eat more ultra-processed foods (UPFs) show stronger responses in the brain's reward network when viewing images of appetizing foods-and these brain responses are linked to increases in body fat one year later. The findings, just published in JAMA Network Open, suggest that the brain may become more sensitive to food cues when children consume more UPFs. UPFs are manufactured food products-such as breakfast cereals, packaged bread and instant soups-that are designed to be highly palatable, convenient and shelf-stable. They often contain artificial sweeteners, colors and other ingredients that people do not typically use when cooking at home. On average, U. S. children get about 67% of their daily calories from UPFs.

Hiroshima University researchers investigated the effects of hydrogen supplementation on sleep quality in healthy human volunteers. While hydrogen supplementation had no significant effect compared to a placebo, individuals in the hydrogen-supplementation group reporting better sleep quality were discovered to have a lower abundance of hydrogen producing bacteria in their gut microbiome. A Hiroshima University-led randomized, double-blind clinical trial found that hydrogen supplementation did not significantly improve sleep quality compared to a placebo; however, exploratory analyses suggest that differences in the abundance of hydrogen-producing gut bacteria may be associated with individual differences in sleep-related responses.