Introduction: COVID-19-related anosmia is a remarkable and disease-specific finding. With this multicenter cohort study, we aimed to determine the prevalence of anosmia in pediatric cases with COVID-19 from Turkey and make an objective assessment with a smell awareness questionnaire. Material and Methods: This multicenter prospective cohort study was conducted with pediatric infection clinics in 37 centers in 19 different cities of Turkey between October 2020 and March 2021. The symptoms of 10.157 COVID-19 cases 10–18 years old were examined. Age, gender, other accompanying symptoms, and clinical severity of the disease of cases with anosmia and ageusia included in the study were recorded. The cases were interviewed for the smell awareness questionnaire at admission and one month after the illness. Results: Anosmia was present in 12.5% (1.266/10.157) of COVID-19 cases 10-18 years of age. The complete records of 1053 patients followed during the study period were analyzed. The most common symptoms accompanying symptoms with anosmia were ageusia in 885 (84%) cases, fatigue in 534 cases (50.7%), and cough in 466 cases (44.3%). Anosmia was recorded as the only symptom in 84 (8%) of the cases. One month later, it was determined that anosmia persisted in 88 (8.4%) cases. In the smell awareness questionnaire, the score at admission was higher than the score one month later (P < 0.001). Discussion: With this study, we have provided the examination of a large case series across Turkey. Anosmia and ageusia are specific symptoms seen in cases of COVID-19. With the detection of these symptoms, it should be aimed to isolate COVID-19 cases in the early period and reduce the spread of the infection. Such studies are important because the course of COVID-19 in children differs from adults and there is limited data on the prevalence of anosmia.

Acute bronchiolitis, mostly seen in infants and younger children, is a lower respiratory tract infection frequently caused by viral agents. We aimed to determine the frequency of a broad panel of respiratory viruses including human bocavirus (HBoV) and to assess the clinical characteristics of acute bronchiolitis in a group of children under 24 months of age. A total of 62 children (45 male, 17 female; age range: 0-2 years) with the initial diagnosis of acute bronchiolitis and 33 healthy children (21 male, 12 female; age range: 0-2 years) as control group who were admitted to the Pediatrics Department of Mersin University Hospital, southern Turkey, from January to July 2010 were included in the study. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected from the study groups and the detection of respiratory viruses [respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) A & B; rhinovirus (RV); human metapneumovirus (hMPV) A & B; influenza virus type A [H1N1, H3N2, H1N1v], B & C; parainfluenza virus (PIV) type 1, 2, 3 & 4A/B; adenovirus (AdV); HBoV; coronavirus (CoV 229E); enterovirus (EV)], were performed by using a commercial system namely CLART®Pneumovir (Clinical Array Technology, Genomica, Spain) based on the principle of multiplex polymerase chain reaction (M-PCR) and DNA microarray. Demographic features, clinical and laboratory findings of the patients, treatment protocols and the relationship between the length of hospitalization and the viral agents determined were also evaluated. Of the 62 samples collected from bronchiolitis cases, at least one virus was detected in 52 (83.9%) and viral co-infections were detected in 31 (50%) of them. Including the co-infections, RSV was the most commonly identified virus (n= 21; 33.9%), followed by influenza A [H1N1] (n= 18; 29%), RV (n= 18; 29%), hMPV (n= 13; 21%), PIV (n= 10; 16.1%), AdV (n= 5; 8%), HBoV (n= 3; 4.8%) and EV (n= 1; 1.6%). Of the 33 samples from healthy children, at least one virus was detected in 21 (63.6%) and viral co-infections were detected in seven (21.2%) samples. Including the co-infections, the most commonly detected virus was RV (n= 10; 30.3%), followed by influenza A [H1N1] (n= 6; 18.1%), AdV (n= 6; 18.1%), RSV (n= 4; 12.1%) and PIV (n= 3; 9%), however HBoV and hMPV were not detected in the control group. The differences of demographic features (age, gender, history of atopy, exposure of smoking, length of breast-feeding, presence of school-age sibling) and frequency of virus detection (83.9% and 63.6%, respectively) between the patient and control groups were not statistically significant (p> 0.05). The most common complaints of patients on admission were cough (100%), runny nose (82.3%) and respiratory difficulty (71%), whereas fever was present in 21 (33.9%) patients. The most common findings on physical examination were prolonged expirium (98.4%), rhonchi (98.4%), rales (80.6%), tachypnea (71%) and tachycardia (67.7%). Pulmonary graphies revealed that diffuse air trappings were more common in...

Pentavalent antimony is still the drug of choice in the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. Pantavalent antimony can cause a wide range of adverse effects, the most serious of which are cardiotoxicity and hepatotoxicity. Acute pancreatitis is a rarely reported adverse effect. An infant who developed pancreatitis during meglumine antimoniate treatment for visceral leishmaniasis and who was successfully treated with a combination of allopurinol and ketoconazole is reported.

Meningococcal carriage studies and transmission modeling can predict IMD epidemiology and used to define invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) control strategies. In this multicenter study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of nasopharyngeal Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) carriage, serogroup distribution, and related risk factors in Turkey. Nasopharyngeal samples were collected from a total of 1267 children and adolescents and were tested with rt-PCR. Nm carriage was detected in 96 participants (7.5%, 95% CI 6.1–9.0), with the peak age at 13 years (12.5%). Regarding age groups, Nm carriage rate was 7% in the 0–5 age group, was 6.9%in the 6–10 age group, was 7.9% in the 11–14 age group, and was 9.3% in the 15–18 age group. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups (p > 0.05). The serogroup distribution was as follows: 25% MenX, 9.4% MenA, 9.4% MenB, 2.1% MenC, 3.1% MenW, 2.1% for MenY, and 48.9% for non-groupable. The Nm carriage rate was higher in children with previous upper respiratory tract infections and with a high number of household members, whereas it was lower in children with antibiotic use in the last month (p < 0.05 for all). In this study, MenX is the predominant carriage strain. The geographical distribution of Nm strains varies, but serogroup distribution in the same country might change in a matter of years. Adequate surveillance and/or a proper carriage study is paramount for accurate/dynamic serogroup distribution and the impact of the proposed vaccination.