Infectious diseases as a cause of global childhood mortality and morbidity: Progress in recognition, prevention, and treatment

Abstract

Child mortality and morbidity are far too high with almost 1% of all children around the world dying each year! Children living in underdeveloped countries (also referred to as "low-income") and in those areas where crime and military actions are part of everyday life, come under increased threat from disease, starvation, trauma, and death. Infectious diseases are responsible for more than half of childhood deaths and an even greater level of morbidity. This article will review deaths in children, generally in those less than 5 years of age, from pneumonia and other respiratory infections (including bacterial pneumonia, pertussis, viral pneumonia respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), measles, and influenza, tuberculosis (TB), bacterial and viral enteric disease (including enterotoxic (ETEC) and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), Shigella, cholera, infections, rotavirus norovirus, and malaria. Factors influencing disease epidemiology and mortality especially in underdeveloped countries will be noted. Much progress has been made in decreasing infectious disease morbidity and mortality during the last few decades, but much more progress can and should be made. The role of decreasing air pollution, improving sanitation, nutrition, mosquito control, immunization rates, and use of antimicrobial agents will be discussed.

Placental Macrophage (Hofbauer Cell) Responses to Infection During Pregnancy: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…Other pathogens such as Zika virus (ZIKV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Varicella-zoster virus (VZV), Listeria monocytogenes and Treponema pallidum have subsequently been added to this group (15). Congenital infection can be associated with considerable morbidity and mortality, depending on the developmental stage of the fetus at the time of infection and the causative pathogen (16,17). Consequences include neurodevelopmental delays, hearing loss (18), microencephaly and other major neurological abnormalities (19).…”

Advanced Characterization of Biofunctional Human Milk Oligosaccharides by Mass Spectrometry and Complementary Methods

“…animal milk [104,105] or plants as sources of dietetic OS. As already demonstrated for the human blood serum glycome [93], a respective database will also allow the HT analysis of biotechnological HMOs [106] or for HT glycoprofiling of bacterial HMOs consumption [107].…”

“…Se-gene dependent HMOs and N-glycans; changes of HMOs abundances during different stages of lactation [105] Maternal Secretor (Se) status affects gut bifidobacterial communities of breastfed infants: Better growth of Se + human milk fed fecal isolates on 2'-FL Se-genotype dependent HMOs, 2'-FL [106] Human salivary MUC5B glycoprotein o-glycosylation reflects maternal Se-& ABO status O-glycans structurally similar to Se-genotype dependent HMOs [107] 1 16 Chapter 1…”

“…The early life threat caused by infectious diseases and the variety of causative pathogens is substantially high. Worldwide, more than half (51.8 %) of the deaths of children who succumb to infections occur within the first two years of life [106]…”

“…Examples for such detrimental early life pathogens are for example Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), Measles morbillivirus, Influenza, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Enterotoxic E. coli (ETEC), Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), Shigella, Vibrio cholerae, Rotavirus, Norovirus, and Plasmodium spp. e.g., falciparum (malaria)[106]. A subset of these early life pathogens which utilize glyco-epitopes to adhere to inner surfaces (i.e.…”