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Urinary tract infections caused by Aerococcus urinae have rarely been reported in children, and the clinical characteristics remain unclear. We reviewed medical records of children whose urine cultures grew A. urinae (≥104 CFU/mL) at a tertiary children's hospital in Tokyo, Japan. We found 17 pediatric patients in a review of 22,769 urine cultures between June 2006 and May 2022. The median age of 17 patients was 10.7 years (IQR 8–13 years), and males represented 76.5 % of the patients. Sixteen patients (94.1 %) had underlying urological conditions (neurogenic bladder, vesicoureteral reflux, urethral stenosis, bladder exstrophy, or urinary catheterization). The chief symptoms were fever (35.3 %), malodorous urine (23.5 %), nausea (11.8 %), and back pain (5.9 %). Ten patients were asymptomatic. Pyelonephritis was diagnosed in five male patients. All of them had underlying abnormal conditions of the bladder, and two had malodorous urine. All patients had favorable outcomes after 10–14 days of ampicillin/amoxicillin-based antimicrobial therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The stigma associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is a global problem that causes psychosomatic distress, including depression, anxiety, and loneliness. However, few studies have investigated the stigma of COVID‐19 and the associated mental health impact on children or parents. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study at the National Center for Child Health and Development in Tokyo, Japan, between November 2021 and October 2022. Children (4–17 years of age) with COVID‐19 and parents of hospitalized children (0–17 years of age) with COVID‐19 were enrolled in the study. Children with special health‐care needs were excluded. The questionnaires on stigma and mental health (depression, anxiety, and loneliness) were administered during hospitalization and at the 1 month follow‐up evaluation after discharge. Results: During the study period, 47 children and 111 parents were included. Thirty‐eight children (81%) and 105 parents (95%) answered the questionnaires at the 1 month follow up, respectively. Approximately 70% of participants were categorized as a high‐stigma group. In children, subjective stigma was associated with loneliness during hospitalization (mean difference [MD] 2.32; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.11–4.52) and depression at the 1 month follow up (MD 2.44; 95% CI, 0.40–4.48). In parents, presumed stigma was associated with depression, anxiety, and loneliness at 1 month follow up (MD 2.24, 1.68, and 1.15; 95% CI, 0.58–3.89, 0.11–3.25, and 0.08–2.21). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the stigma associated with COVID‐19 continues to affect mental health for more than a month after discharge, and the effects of stigma on mental health differed between the children and parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated cerebellar ataxia without multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) or encephalopathy in children has been rarely reported. We reviewed medical records of hospitalized children who had developed cerebellar ataxia during the acute phase of COVID-19 infection, without MIS-C or encephalopathy, in our center. We also conducted a literature review and summarized the clinical characteristics, treatment, and outcomes. We found three cases in our center and additional three cases in the literature. All patients were male and five were preschool children. The cerebellar symptoms started between day 2 and day 10 during the acute phase of the COVID-19 infection. Two cases were complicated by mutism. One patient received therapy for acute cerebellar ataxia with corticosteroids, and others did not receive any specific therapy for acute cerebellar ataxia. The symptoms improved completely in all patients, with the recovery interval ranging from one week to two months. Further studies are warranted to elucidate the pathogenesis of acute cerebellar ataxia during acute COVID-19 in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies have reported the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in a cross‐sectional fashion; however, the natural course of each symptom based on a daily basis during the acute phase has not yet been clarified. This retrospective study aimed to describe the natural course of COVID‐19 in children according to dominant variants. Methods: We conducted our study on symptomatic children with COVID‐19 who were hospitalized at the National Center for Child Health and Development, in Japan. We excluded patients who were observed for less than 9 days and those with underlying disease, COVID‐19 vaccination, coinfection, complications, or therapeutic intervention. We collected the data on each participant's age at admission, sex, medical history, observation period, hospitalization period, SARS‐CoV‐2 test results, and 10 daily symptoms in the first 9 days from the illness onset. Results: Eventually, 115 children were included in this study. The prevalence of fever during the omicron era declined more rapidly over time than that during the pre‐omicron era. The prevalence of cough and rhinorrhea did not decline during the observation period, and these clinical manifestations were more common during the pre‐omicron era at any point. The prevalence of dysgeusia and/or dysosmia steadily increased over time in the pre‐omicron era. This study demonstrated that the prevalence of some symptoms differed not only at the onset but also over time during the acute phase. Conclusion: Details of the natural clinical course of children with COVID‐19 help primary care physicians to manage these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this single-center retrospective observational study, we report that the incidence of seizures in febrile children with COVID-19 was significantly higher in the Omicron era than in the pre-Omicron era (14.6% vs 1.7%, P  < .001). One-third of the cases in the Omicron era were older than 5 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical picture in early infants with COVID-19 has been described in a limited number of reports, mainly from European countries, United States, and China, but not Japan. Although several reports suggested that early infants can develop more severe COVID-19 disease than older children, risk factors for severe illness and differences according to nationality or ethnicity remain unclear. We report a case series of 13 infants ≤90 days old with COVID-19 in Japan. All patients had mild outcomes and did not require respiratory support or intensive care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]