Childcare attendance and risk of infectious mononucleosis: A population-based Danish cohort study

Background The risk of infectious mononucleosis (IM) is affected both by crowding and by sibship structure, i.e., number and signed age differential between an index child and a sibling. Siblings provide protection against IM by pre-empting delayed primary Epstein-Barr virus infection with its associated high risk of IM. The association between childcare attendance and risk of IM, on the other hand, has never been studied in a large, well-characterized cohort. Methods Danish children born in July 1992 through 2016 with a completely known simple childcare attendance history before age 1.5 years (n = 908,866) were followed up for a hospital contact with an IM diagnosis at ages 1.5–26 years. Hazard ratios (HRs) of IM for an additional year of exposure were obtained from stratified Cox regression analyses, stratified by sex and year of birth, with age as the underlying time scale, adjusted for sibship structure, and sociodemographic variables including parental ethnicity and maternal age. Results An additional year of exclusively attending a daycare home (max 5 children) yielded HR = 0.90 (95% confidence interval 0.81–1.00), and similarly, each year of exclusively attending a childcare institution (e.g., crèche) yielded HR = 0.94 (0.84–1.06). Conclusions Forwarding enrollment in childcare by a year lowers the risk of IM later in life much less than having an additional sibling of comparable age and has no practical public health implications. We find our results suggestive of a random threshold for successful Epstein-Barr virus infection that is more easily reached by a sibling than the collective of playmates in daycare homes or childcare institutions.

Lipschütz Ulcer and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection

Aims: Lipschütz ulcer (LU), also known as acute vulvar ulcer, is a rare cause of vulvar ulcerations of nonvenereal origin. Our aim is to alert about this manifestation of the disease and to prevent unnecessary treatment.Case description: we present a 15 years old female, without relevant family and past history, admitted in the emergency room with a painful vulvar ulcer, preceded by five days of fever and sore throat. On physical examination, she had enlarged, and erythematous tonsils and bilateral anterior cervical lymphadenopathy and the genital examination revealed vulvar oedema and a deep ulcer with necrotic plaques in labium minus. The exclusion of transmitted sexual disease led to a diagnosis of Lipschütz ulcer. She started symptomatic treatment, oral antibiotic and corticoid therapy. She was discharged from the hospital after 6 days of admission and returned to a consult one month later when it was observed an almost complete resolution of the lesions. No recurrences occurred until 3 months.Conclusion: LU is a misdiagnosed pathology, probably because doctors, in general, are not familiarized with that, and since the diagnosis is made by exclusion. Infectious, such as Epstein-Barr Virus infections, are proposed etiologies.

Kawasaki Disease Triggered by Epstein-Barr Virus Infection: A Case Report

Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease today. An important and enduring complication of KD is a coronary aneurysm, whose early diagnosis and treatment can reduce the risk from 25% to 3%. Diagnosis of this disease is mainly clinical, although leukocytosis, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and echocardiography are helpful in diagnosis. The cause of KD remains unknown, but the most common hypothesis is an abnormal immune response that is likely caused by an infectious agent, possibly in a favorable genetic background, and leads to vasculitis of the middle arteries, especially coronary arteries of the heart. Numerous infectious agents have been suggested in this regard. Co-infection with KD can also delay diagnosis. In this article, we introduce five years and seven months child who developed Kawasaki disease within a few days of the onset of Epstein-Barr virus infection.

Association Between Time Spent Outdoors and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis

Objective:This study aims to determine the contributions of sun exposure and ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure to risk of paediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS).Methods:Children with MS and controls recruited from multiple centres in the USA were matched on sex and age. Multivariable conditional logistic regression was used to investigate the association of time spent outdoors daily in summer, use of sun protection, and ambient summer UVR dose in the year prior to birth and the year prior to diagnosis, with MS risk, adjusting for sex, age, race, birth season, child’s skin colour, mother’s education, tobacco smoke exposure, being overweight, and Epstein-Barr virus infection.Results:332 children with MS (median disease duration: 7.3 months) and 534 controls were included after matching on sex and age. In a fully adjusted model, compared to spending <30 minutes outdoors daily during the most recent summer, greater time spent outdoors was associated with a marked reduction in the odds of developing MS, with evidence of dose-response (30 minutes to 1 hour: adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=0.48, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 0.23-0.99, p=0.05; 1-2 hours: AOR=0.19, 95%CI 0.09-0.40, p<0.001). Higher summer ambient UVR dose was also protective for MS (AOR=0.76 per kJ/m2, 95%CI 0.62-0.94, p=0.01).Conclusions:If this is a causal association, spending more time in the sun during summer may be strongly protective against developing paediatric MS, as well as residing in a sunnier location.