In recent years, social media has become part of our lives, even among children. From the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic period, media device and Internet access rapidly increased. Adolescents connected Internet alone, consulting social media, mostly Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. During “lockdown”, the Internet usage allowed communication with peers and the continuity activities such as school teaching. However, we have to keep in mind that media usage may be related to some adverse consequences especially in the most vulnerable people, such as the young. Aim of the review is to focus on risks correlated to social media use by children and adolescents, identifying spies of rising problems and engaging in preventive recommendations. The scoping review was performed according to PRISMA guidelines, searching on PubMed the terms “social media” or “social network”, “health”, and “pediatrics”. Excluding articles not pertinent, we found 68 reports. Out of them, 19 were dealing with depression, 15 with diet, and 15 with psychological problems, which appeared to be the most reported risk of social media use. Other identified associated problems were sleep, addiction, anxiety, sex related issues, behavioral problems, body image, physical activity, online grooming, sight, headache, and dental caries. Public and medical awareness must rise over this topic and new prevention measures must be found, starting with health practitioners, caregivers, and websites/application developers. Pediatricians should be aware of the risks associated to a problematic social media use for the young’s health and identify sentinel signs in children as well as prevent negative outcomes in accordance with the family.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading global cause of respiratory infections in infants and the second most frequent cause of death during the first year of life. This highly contagious seasonal virus is responsible for approximately 3 million hospitalizations and 120,000 deaths annually among children under the age of 5 years. Bronchiolitis is the most common severe manifestation; however, RSV infections are associated with an increased long-term risk for recurring wheezing and the development of asthma. There is an unmet need for new agents and a universal strategy to prevent RSV infections starting at the time of birth. RSV is active between November and April in Italy, and prevention strategies must ensure that all neonates and infants under 1 year of age are protected during the endemic season, regardless of gestational age at birth and timing of birth relative to the epidemic season. Approaches under development include maternal vaccines to protect neonates during their first months, monoclonal antibodies to provide immediate protection lasting up to 5 months, and pediatric vaccines for longer-lasting protection. Meanwhile, improvements are needed in infection surveillance and reporting to improve case identification and better characterize seasonal trends in infections along the Italian peninsula. Rapid diagnostic tests and confirmatory laboratory testing should be used for the differential diagnosis of respiratory pathogens in children. Stakeholders and policymakers must develop access pathways once new agents are available to reduce the burden of infections and hospitalizations.

Young children are too often exposed to mobile devices (MD) and most of them had their own device. The adverse effects of a early and prolonged exposure to digital technology on pre-school children has been described by several studies. Aim of the study is to analyze the consequences of MD exposure in pre-school children. We analyzed the documented effects of media exposure on children’s mental and physical health. According to recent studies, MD may interfere with learning, children development, well being, sleep, sight, listening, caregiver-child relationship. Pediatricians should be aware of both the beneficial and side effects of MD and give advice to the families, according to children’s age. In according to literature, the Italian Pediatric Society suggest that the media device exposure in childhood should be modulated by supervisors.

Background: Social distancing measures are used to reduce the spreading of COVID-19. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of local restrictions on the transmission of respiratory virus infections. Methods: we retrospectively analyzed the nasopharyngeal samples of all patients (0–18 years old) admitted with respiratory symptoms in a large Italian tertiary hospital during the last three seasons from 2018 to 2021. Results: A strong reduction in all viral respiratory infections was observed in the last season (2020–2021) compared to the two previous seasons (−79.69% and −80.66%, respectively). In particular, we found that during the epidemic period 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, the total number of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases was, respectively 726 and 689, while in the last season a total of five cases was detected. In the first months of 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, the total flu infections were 240 and 354, respectively, while in the last season we did not detect any influenza virus. As other viruses, the presence of Rhinovirus declined, but to a lesser extent: a total of 488 cases were assessed compared to the 1030 and 1165 cases of the two previous respective epidemic seasons. Conclusions: Public health interventions and distancing (including continuous use of face masks) settled to counter the pandemic spread of COVID-19 had a macroscopic impact on all respiratory virus transmission and related diseases, with a partial exception of Rhinovirus. The absence of viruses’ circulation could result in a lack of immunity and increased susceptibility to serious infections in the next seasons.

High rates of vaccination coverage are important in preventing infectious diseases. Enforcing mandatory vaccinations is one of the strategies that some Countries adopted to protect the community when vaccination coverage is not satisfactory. In Italy, in 2017 vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella became compulsory in childhood. In order to contrast vaccination policies, anti-vaccination campaigns contribute to the spread of fake news. Among them, there is the false information that Italy is the only one country with mandatory vaccination policy. Aim of our study is confronting vaccination policies in children under 18 months against among different European countries for the following vaccines: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella. Information on policies of mandatory or recommended vaccinations of the European Countries were gathered by ECDC and compared to the Italian one. European Countries recommend or contemplate compulsory vaccines. Among them, eleven Countries (35.4%) have mandatory vaccinations for at least one out of diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine. Not only in Italy, vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella is mandatory in children under 18 months. Other European countries adopted compulsory policies in order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and to protect the community.

Introduction: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis is among the leading causes of hospitalization in infants. Prophylaxis with palivizumab may reduce RSV infection, but its prescription is restricted to high-risk groups. The aim of the study is to retrospectively determine acute hospitalization costs of bronchiolitis.Materials and methods: Infants aged 1 month−1 year, admitted to Bambino Gesù Children Hospital, Rome, Italy, with a diagnosis of bronchiolitis from January 1 till December 31, 2017, were included in the study.Results: A total of 531 patients were enrolled in the study, and the mean age was 78.75 days. The main etiologic agent causing bronchiolitis was RSV, accounting for 58.38% of infections. The total cost of bronchiolitis hospitalization was 2,958,786 euros. The mean cost per patient was significantly higher in the case of RSV (5,753.43 ± 2,041.62 euros) compared to other etiology (5,395.15 ± 2,040.87 euros) (p = 0.04).Discussion: The study confirms the high hospitalization cost associated with bronchiolitis. In detail, in the case of RSV etiology, the cost was higher compared to other etiology, which is likely due to the longer hospitalization and the more frequent admission to the intensive cure department.Conclusion: This study highlights that bronchiolitis is an important cost item even in a tertiary hospital and that cost-effective interventions targeting RSV are increasingly urgent.