This week, take a look at several video interviews with experts from the 2024 AAP meetings, all in one place.
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Thank you for visiting the Contemporary Pediatrics® website. Take a look at some of our top stories from last week (Monday, September 16, to Friday, September 20, 2024), and click on each link to read and watch anything you may have missed.
Last week, The American Academy of Pediatrics held its National Conference & Exhibition from Orlando, Florida. Contemporary Pediatrics interviewed several speakers, who discussed their sessions, gave practical advice for pediatricians, and highlighted some of the top headlines in pediatric health care.
Click the play button on each video below to watch some of our top interviews from the meeting, and click here to view our entire conference coverage page.
In its latest reporting, the CDC shows a significant increase in incidence rates of pertussis (whooping cough) across the United States this year. In the federal agency’s Nationally Notifiable Infectious Diseases and Conditions, United States: Weekly Tables chart, which includes the week ending September 21, there have been 15,661 total cases this year.1
This is a significant uptick in cases compared to last year. In 2023, the numbers show there was 3,657 cases through the same reporting period of the year.1
CDC points to 2 potential reasons for the trend: vaccination protection is waning, and the country is returning to normalcy, post-pandemic. The federal agency points out the COVID-19 prevention strategies lowered transmission rates.
CDC says infants under 1 are at greatest risk for severe disease and mortality because their immune systems are still developing. This age group continues to have the highest reported rate of pertussis.
At the 2024 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition, Angela Chun, MEd, MD, FAAP, a pediatric rheumatologist at Northwestern University, Lurie Children’s Hospital, shared valuable insights into evaluating musculoskeletal pain in children. Musculoskeletal pain is a common concern in pediatric practice, and Chun focused on distinguishing between mechanical and inflammatory joint pains.
Chun emphasized the importance of understanding the timing and duration of pain when evaluating pediatric patients. "The number one kind of factor in terms of the history is timing. Both in terms of how long has the pain been going on for, as well as when does the pain seem to come on or what makes it better or worse?" she explained. Specifically, persistent symptoms in the same joint for more than 6 weeks raise concerns for inflammatory arthritis, such as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). “The reason that we use that 6-week time period is because kids can have true arthritis for a lot of different reasons… but usually those tend to get better by, I would say, 4 weeks.”
Rana Hamdy, MD, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., provided key insights into the management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children. Speaking to an audience primarily composed of primary care pediatricians, Hamdy emphasized the importance of incorporating new evidence into clinical practices, even though official guidelines are still based on recommendations published over a decade ago.
“I was honored to be invited by the conference organizers specifically to talk about CAP,” said Hamdy. CAP, she explained, is a common condition encountered by pediatricians in both outpatient and inpatient settings, which makes staying up-to-date with the latest research essential.
“The most recent consensus guidelines for the management of CAP in children published by the IDSA in kids were published in 2011, so it’s been 13 years,” she noted, highlighting the gap between guidelines and current evidence.
John Loiselle, MD, FAAP, chief of Emergency Medicine at Nemours Children's Hospital of Delaware, delivered an insightful discussion on the top 10 musculoskeletal complaints in pediatric patients. His focus centered on how the developmental anatomy of children predisposes them to certain conditions, distinctly different from adults, and what pediatricians need to know to diagnose and manage these injuries effectively.
Loiselle explained that children are more susceptible to certain musculoskeletal injuries due to the presence of growth plates, which are absent in adults. “Children have growth plates that adults don't have, and so those are going to start to hypertrophy during the growth spurt,” he noted. This developmental process places children at risk for specific injuries, such as a slipped capital femoral epiphysis, where the pressure from growth and weight affects the growth plate in the hip joint.
He also emphasized that musculoskeletal issues frequently present in primary care settings rather than being immediately referred to orthopedic surgeons. “Most of us think, well, they're all going to go to the orthopedic surgeon, but they do not present to the orthopedic surgeon,” Loiselle pointed out, highlighting the importance of pediatricians in identifying which cases require further specialist care.
"As we know, obesity is a huge problem, growing problem in the United States, and we now have more tools, the weight management medications that we can begin using for kids and families who really need it," said Tanya Altmann, MD, a pediatrician in Southern California and an AAP spokesperson.
Altmann highlighted the ongoing importance of lifestyle interventions, stating, "We need them outdoors, exercising. We need them eating healthy, nutrient-rich meals. We need them not spending time on screens." Despite these efforts, she noted that many families are doing everything right, yet some children continue to struggle. "There is this group of kids where they are just constantly thinking about food, and it's really overwhelming and detracts from their school, from their self-confidence," she explained.
