Terho Heikkinen

..Although vaccination has been proved to be a safe, efficacious, and cost-effective intervention, immunisation rates remain suboptimal in many European countries, resulting in poor control of many vaccine-preventable diseases...

..Major advances in the management of acute otitis media will require further research into the mechanisms of viral infection, viral-bacterial interaction and the host inflammatory response during viral infection...

..More widespread vaccination of children should be considered to decrease the burden of influenza on children and wider society...

..However, most children with influenza are treated as outpatients, and scarce data are available on the burden of influenza in these children...

..Alternatively, early treatment of the viral infection with specific antiviral agents would also be effective in reducing the occurrence of acute otitis media...

..To determine the rates of hospital admission for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection among children born at different gestational ages. To assess the theoretical impact of palivizumab prophylaxis on admissions for RSV infection...

..Acute otitis media developed in 61% of hMPV-infected children <3 years of age. Our findings demonstrate that the effect of hMPV in the community is greatest in children <2 years of age...

..The sensitivity of nasal swabs was comparable to that of nasopharyngeal aspirates for the detection of all major respiratory viruses except respiratory syncytial virus...

..Annual influenza vaccination should be recommended to all children from 6 months to 3 years of age...

..Although vaccines against many respiratory viruses could also become available, the ultimate prevention of the common cold seems to remain a distant aim...

..The availability of effective vaccines against the principal viruses predisposing to acute otitis media could be expected to result in a substantial reduction in the incidence of this disease...

..The safety record of seasonal inactivated influenza vaccines is excellent even in the youngest children...

..A single dose of ceftriaxone resulted in significant changes in the nasopharyngeal bacterial flora, increasing the relative prevalence of pneumococcal strains with decreased susceptibility to penicillin...

..Increased knowledge of the detailed mechanisms of viral infection, the host inflammatory response during URI and the interaction between viruses and bacteria could lead to major advances in the prevention of AOM...

..The study also shows that influenza viruses may circulate in the community at substantial levels much longer than previously thought...

..To determine whether the adjunctive drugs antihistamine and corticosteroid improve immediate and long-term outcomes of acute otitis media (AOM)...

..AOM with tympanostomy tube otorrhea provides a unique opportunity to study the appearance and disappearance of pathogens during the course of the disease without stressing the child...

..We aimed to establish the effectiveness of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine against laboratory-confirmed influenza A and B infections in a cohort of children younger than 3 years...

..Influenza causes a great disease burden on children especially in the outpatient setting. The signs and symptoms of influenza in unselected children treated as outpatients have not been previously published...

..The effectiveness of oseltamivir could be substantially greater if the treatment were started earlier during the course of the illness...

..The objective of this study was to assess whether amoxicillin-clavulanate accelerates the resolution of acute tube otorrhea...

..Positive clinical outcomes of AOM cases associated with corticosteroid treatment needs to be confirmed in a larger clinical trial of children with intact tympanic membranes, who do not receive tympanocentesis...

..Mucosal coinfections with respiratory viruses and Streptococcus pneumoniae are common, but the role of rhinovirus infections in the development of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in children has not been studied...

..children are frequently hospitalized with influenza-associated illnesses. Few virologically confirmed population-based studies of pediatric hospitalizations performed during several consecutive seasons are vailable...

..Our aim was to specify the full etiology of acute middle ear infection by using modern microbiological methods concomitantly for bacterial and viral detection...

..A simple, rapid, and readily available method for diagnosing maxillary sinusitis in primary care would increase the accuracy of the diagnoses and thus reduce unnecessary antibiotic treatment...

..The rapid point-of-care test used was sensitive and specific for diagnosing influenza A, but its sensitivity for influenza B was limited...

..Among 2288 infections, the overall sensitivity of the clinical diagnosis of influenza was 38% and the positive predictive value was 32%...

..The 2009-2010 A/H1N1 pandemic provided a unique setting to study the safety of MF59-adjuvanted vaccination in pregnancy...

..By several indicators the clinical picture of croup caused by influenza viruses was significantly more severe than that caused by parainfluenza viruses...

..We determined the development of recurrent wheezing in young children within 3 years after hospitalization for RSV or non-RSV bronchiolitis...

..The results show that influenza vaccination would be cost saving in all children <or=13 years of age in Finland, which advocates reconsideration of the current influenza vaccine recommendations in all countries...

..The SIEVE recommends the implementation of such a policy as soon as financially and practically possible...