Faculty Bibliography

Solid organ transplant (SOT) candidates and recipients are at risk of significant morbidity and mortality from infection, including those circulating in the community from unexpected outbreaks. In late 2018-summer of 2019, a measles outbreak occurred in the New York City area, with a total of 649 cases reported. We developed a systematic three-part approach to address measles risk in our adult SOT program through: 1) identification of non-immune adults living in outbreak ZIP codes, 2) education focused on risk reduction for patients from outbreak ZIP codes and 3) risk reduction for non-immune patients. All waitlisted or previously transplanted patients residing in outbreak areas received a measles patient education handout. The electronic medical record of patients born in or after 1957 was reviewed for serologic evidence of measles immunity. Measles immunity testing was performed in patients without documentation of immunity. Patients who tested non-immune were offered MMR vaccination or intravenous immunoglobulin depending on their transplant phase and risk profile. Thus, we demonstrate successful implementation of a systematic risk assessment during a large measles outbreak to identify and protect at-risk SOT patients. As vaccine hesitancy persists, our strategies may be increasingly relevant to transplant centers and those caring for immunocompromised patients.

Pediatric patients are excluded from most COVID-19 therapeutic trials. We outline a rationale for the inclusion of children in COVID-19 therapeutic trials with enabled us to include children of all ages in a therapeutic COVID-19 trial at our institution.

We report two cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) in infants presenting with fever in the absence of respiratory distress who required hospitalization for evaluation of possible invasive bacterial infections. The diagnoses resulted from routine isolation and real-time RT-PCR-based testing for SARS-CoV-2 for febrile infants in an outbreak setting.

OBJECTIVE:To assess the impact of separation of SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive mother-newborn dyads on breastfeeding outcomes. STUDY DESIGN/METHODS:This is an observational longitudinal cohort study of SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive mothers and their infants at three NYU Langone Health hospitals from March 25, 2020 through May 30, 2020. Mothers were surveyed by telephone regarding pre-delivery feeding plans, in-hospital feeding, and home feeding of their neonates. Any change prompted an additional question to determine whether this change was due to COVID-19. RESULTS:Of the 160 mother-newborn dyads, 103 mothers were reached by telephone, and 85 consented to participate. No significant difference was observed in pre-delivery feeding plan between the separated and unseparated dyads (P = .268). Higher rates of breastfeeding were observed in the unseparated dyads compared with the separated dyads in the hospital (p<0.001), and at home (p=0.012). Only two mothers in each group reported expressed breast milk as the hospital feeding source (5.6% of unseparated vs 4.1% of separated). COVID-19 was more commonly cited as the reason for change among the separated compared with the unseparated group (49.0% vs 16.7%, p<0.001). When dyads were further stratified by symptom status into four groups (asymptomatic separated, asymptomatic unseparated, symptomatic separated, and symptomatic unseparated), results remained unchanged. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:In the setting of COVID-19, separation of mother-newborn dyads impacts breastfeeding outcomes, with lower rates of breastfeeding both during hospitalization and at home following discharge compared with unseparated mothers and infants. No evidence of vertical transmission was observed; one case of postnatal transmission occurred from an unmasked symptomatic mother who held her infant at birth.

There have been multiple descriptions of seizures during the acute infectious period in patients with COVID-19. However, there have been no reports of status epilepticus after recovery from COVID-19 infection. Herein, we discuss a patient with refractory status epilepticus 6 weeks after initial infection with COVID-19. Extensive workup demonstrated elevated inflammatory markers, recurrence of a positive nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction, and hippocampal atrophy. Postinfectious inflammation may have triggered refractory status epilepticus in a manner similar to the multisystemic inflammatory syndrome observed in children after COVID-19.

Background. Secondary oral vancomycin prophylaxis (OVP) has been utilized in adults with a history of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) while receiving systemic antibiotics to prevent CDI recurrence. However, this practice is poorly described in pediatric patients. Rates of CDI recurrence in pediatric patients range from 10-40% and is associated with morbidity and mortality. This study assessed the efficacy and safety of secondary OVP in pediatric patients with subsequent antibiotic exposure. Methods. This retrospective study evaluated pediatric patients <=18 years with any history of clinical CDI and receiving systemic antibiotics in a subsequent encounter during the time period of 2013-2019. Patients who received OVP 10 mg/kg (up to 125 mg per dose) every 12 hours during concomitant antibiotics were compared to those who did not. The primary outcome was CDI recurrence within 8 weeks following antibiotic exposure. Secondary outcomes included time to recurrence, severity of recurrence, and isolation of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from any site. Risk factors for CDI recurrence were assessed using logistic regression. Results. A total of 153 patients were screened for inclusion, of which 32 and 47 patients were assigned to the OVP and no OVP group, respectively. Median age was 8.6 years and the most common comorbidities were malignancy (47%) and immunosuppression (46%). Median time since last CDI to study inclusion was 64.5 days in the OVP group and 90 days in the no OVP group, P=0.320. Compared to the no OVP group, OVP patients had longer hospital stays (5 vs 14 days, P=0.001) and more concomitant antibiotic exposure (8 vs 12.5 days, P=0.001). Median duration of OVP was 12 days. CDI recurrence occurred in 12 patients and was significantly lower in the OVP vs no OVP group (3.1% vs 23.4%; odds ratio, 0.106; 95% confidence interval, 0.013-0.864; P=0.022). VRE was not isolated in any patients. After adjustment in a multivariate analysis, only secondary OVP remained as a protective factor against recurrence (odds ratio, 0.082; 95% confidence interval, 0.009- 0.748; P=0.027). Conclusion. Secondary OVP effectively reduces the risk of recurrent CDI in pediatric patients with a history of CDI while receiving systemic antibiotics. Future prospective studies should validate these findings