Influenza Disease and Vaccination Influenza activity has been increasing for the past few weeks. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) influenza surveillance week 50 shows increasing influenza with children especially impacted.  Influenza-like illness last week, was highest in those 0-4 years (11.2%) followed by 5–24-year-olds (7.5%).1 Emergency department visits for influenza were also significant […]

By Marissa Galicia, PharmD candidate Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) represent a threat to global health, causing infections that are difficult to treat due to resistance to multiple antimicrobial classes. Some preventable ways that MDROs develop are when antibiotics are used longer than necessary or taken inappropriately.1 Initially, only a few bacteria may survive antibiotic treatment, but […]

By Sydney E. Kolosky, PharmD candidate Neonatal late-onset sepsis is a systemic infection that is acquired from the hospital environment after 72 hours of life.1 It represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality among neonates, particularly those born very preterm, with an incidence of 9% which results in approximately 11% lower risk of survival.2 […]

It is Antibiotic Awareness week! It is a great time to renew our understandings and efforts regarding appropriate use of antibiotics, as inappropriate usage can lead to unnecessary resistance and adverse effects.  For 2025, the CDC’s theme is “Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance Takes All of Us”. There are two easy ways we as pharmacists can help […]

A recent article by Kaplan and colleagues was published in the Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in November 2025 evaluating the pneumococcal serotypes and susceptibility of invasive pneumococcal disease in children.1 In this article, the authors evaluated pediatric pneumococcal disease in children admitted to 8 hospitals across the United States from 2018 – 2023. These […]

The Essential Role of Pharmacists in Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination Evidence shows that pharmacists played a key role in COVID-19 vaccines for patients of all ages, including children, during the peak of the pandemic. Specifically, in the first three years of the pandemic (12/2020 – 9/2023) pharmacists provided 13 – 57% of all pediatric COVID-19 vaccines.1 […]

 By Debonique Burton Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a very common respiratory virus that in most patients often presents with cold-like symptoms such as fever, sneezing, runny nose, cough, and/or decreased appetite.​ Unfortunately, in infants and those with risk factors for severe disease, can cause more serious illness such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia.  RSV has been the most common cause of hospital admissions among infants in the United […]

By Caroline Frost, PharmD candidate Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a common childhood infection. About 90% of pediatric UTIs occur in females.​1​ Uropathogenic Escherichia coli accounts for about 80% of UTIs in children, specifically 83% in females and 50% in males. Other uropathogens include Enterococcus species (5% females, 17% males), Proteus mirabilis (4% females, 11% males), and Klebsiella sp (4% […]

I have been a pharmacist that has been practicing for more than 20 years, and throughout this time, the US has alwways had an infant hepatitis B vaccine strategy in place.  But this has not always been the case.  Let’s look back in time to learn more.  The first hepatitis B vaccine was introduced into […]