Texas coronavirus cases include more than 80 infants

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A health official on the Texas Gulf Coast said 85 infants have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Corpus Christi Nueces County Public Health Director Annette Rodriguez said Friday that the 85 infants are each younger than 1, but offered no other details, including how the children are suspected to have become infected.

“These babies have not even had their first birthday yet. Please help us to stop the spread of this disease” by staying home except for necessary trips, socially distancing and wearing masks in public, Rodriguez said during a public health update in Corpus Christi.

Rodriguez did not return messages for comment Saturday from The Associated Press.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is also stressing that the widespread use of face coverings could avoid another lockdown, which he hasn’t ruled out.

Texas health officials reported more than 10,000 new cases for a fifth consecutive day on Saturday and said 130 more people have died due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, bringing the number of reported cases to 317,730 and the number of deaths to 3,865.

The true number of cases is likely higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up within weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.

Associated Press

Depression in pregnancy may alter babies' brains

Women with depression and anxiety during pregnancy may be more likely to have babies with altered brain development that might be linked to behavior problems later in childhood, a small study suggests.

Researchers asked 101 women to complete questionnaires about depression and anxiety symptoms during their third trimester of pregnancy. Overall, six mothers had symptoms of major depressive disorder, five met criteria for moderate depression, and 42 met criteria for mild depression.

Then, researchers took MRIs of infants’ brains when they were about one month old. They found more alterations in brain structure among the babies born to women who experienced at least moderate levels of depression during pregnancy.

“Our study suggests that moderate levels of maternal depression and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy were associated with variations in the brain’s white matter microstructure or ‘wiring’ at one month of age,” said lead study author Douglas Dean III of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The patterns were different in boys and girls, “which may be related to boys and girls having different developmental trajectories and being differentially impacted by certain early life experiences,” Dean said by email.

Up to one in five pregnant women experience depression and anxiety, and mounting evidence links these conditions with poorer emotional and behavioral outcomes in children, researchers note in JAMA Pediatrics.

That’s true even when mothers’ symptoms aren’t severe, they say.

In the current study, researchers found maternal depression and anxiety linked to changes in what’s known as white matter microstructure in the brain, which is involved in communication between different regions of the brain.

Untreated depression during pregnancy is associated with underweight babies who are more likely to need intensive care after birth. Pregnant women with uncontrolled depression may not eat well or keep up with prenatal visits, and in the most severe cases, they may be at increased risk for suicide.

The study can’t prove whether or how anxiety or depression during pregnancy might directly influence infants’ brain development or emotional or behavioral development.

It’s also not clear whether changes seen on brain scans during infancy would persist as children aged or whether any treatment mothers get for depression or anxiety might impact babies’ brain development.

Still, the results underscore the importance of focusing on both physical and mental health during pregnancy, said David Bridgett, a psychology researcher at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb who wasn’t involved in the study.

“For some, psychotherapy or counseling can be highly effective in the treatment of depression and anxiety, which may help to mitigate any risk to the developing infant,” Bridgett said by email. “Therapy and behavioral treatments for depression and anxiety can be just as effective as medication.”

Like many drugs, antidepressants fall into a gray area during pregnancy, with insufficient evidence to definitively prove the harms or benefits. Often, doctors may reserve drugs for women with more severe depression.

“While there is data suggesting that some medications for depression and anxiety may be relatively safe for pregnant women to take, there also is research suggesting that such medications may have effects on child development,” Bridgett added.

The current study provides fresh evidence that mood disorders do need to be addressed during pregnancy, said Erika Forbes, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who wasn’t involved in the study.

“Changes in brain development don’t necessarily lead to long-term impairments in cognition, behavior, or emotion,” Forbes said by email.

“They might not be meaningful, and they’re just one factor,” Forbes added. “But they could make some children more vulnerable to serious problems.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/2PboV1x JAMA Pediatrics, online August 27, 2018.

Britain's royal baby: 10 strange facts

LONDON - There's still no sign of Britain's royal baby, even though the world's media have been camped for three weeks outside the London hospital where Prince William's wife Catherine is due to give birth.

As the "Great Kate Wait" continues, here are 10 things you might not have known about the little future monarch:



1. Genealogists say the baby will be distantly related to Dracula, the 15th century prince who inspired Bram Stoker's famous vampire. Experts have also traced the family tree back to an Islamic sultan who is believed to be descended from the Prophet Mohammed.

2. Finland has gifted William and Kate with a special 'baby box' received by all expectant mothers in the Nordic country, which includes infant clothing, bra pads and even condoms.

3. By custom, earlier royal births were witnessed by the interior minister, in order to ensure that the heir was legitimate. Luckily for Kate, this tradition ended in 1936.

4. The baby does not necessarily need to have a surname -- but if William and Kate want it to have one, they can choose between Mountbatten-Windsor, Wales and Cambridge.

5. World landmarks including Niagara Falls, Toronto's CN Tower and the fountains at London's Trafalgar Square will turn pink or blue to celebrate the birth, depending on whether it is a girl or boy.

6. The journalists camped outside Kate's hospital are almost crying with boredom after a three-week wait, but it was a different story when William was born in 1982.

His mother Princess Diana fooled the press by telling them her son was due on July 1 -- he arrived 10 days earlier, catching the newspapers completely offguard.

7. You can place your bets on everything from the baby's name to what its hair color will be. The bookmakers' favorite names are Alexandra for a girl and George for a boy.

But you could win big if William and Kate opt for one of the unlikelier choices -- Prince Wayne, for example, has odds of 500/1.

8. The baby already has its own Wikipedia page -- "Child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge."

9. Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has knitted a kangaroo for the baby.

10. Football superstar David Beckham has suggested that the royal couple should name their baby after him. "I think they should go for David," he said in an interview this week, adding: "If it's a boy."



source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Shakira, Gerard Pique Launch Charity Baby Shower with Unicef

Shakira, whose first child is due this week, and her boyfriend -- FC Barcelona soccer star Gerard Piqué -- have joined UNICEF to host a virtual baby shower to benefit underprivileged babies.



The virtual shower invites both Shakira and Piqué fans to visit a virtual room where they can learn about infant survival and purchase an "inspirational gift" to help babies around the World. These "gifts" are actually real products that can save lives and will be distributed to the neediest children and communities via UNICEF Networks. Gift prices range from $5 for a mosquito net and $10 for a polio vaccine for 17 children to $37 for an infant scale. The most expensive gift, at $110, buys special food for malnourished children.

"Every couple that's expecting a baby shares our same dreams and hopes for their children," Shakira, who is a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, said. "However, many don't have the same opportunities we do to give them a happy childhood free of preventable and easily cured illnesses. Together we can change that."

Shakira and Piqué's virtual baby shower can be accessed at http://uni.cf/baby.

source:  billboard.com

Fewer antibiotics prescribed for children

The number of antibiotic prescriptions for kids declined 14% from 2002 to 2010, but antibiotics remain the most frequently prescribed drugs for pediatric patients, a federal analysis finds.

Antibiotics accounted for about a quarter of all pediatric prescriptions; amoxicillin leads the list.

Overall, 263.6 million prescriptions were written for patients 17 and under in 2010, down 7% from 2002, finds the analysis of prescription claims databases by Food and Drug Administration researchers, published today in the journal Pediatrics. By comparison, 3.3 billion were dispensed for ages 18 and up, 22% more than in 2002.

The medical community has made "an enormous effort to decrease antibiotic use" for kids in the past decade "by educating parents about the futility of treating viral infections with antibiotics" and about antibiotic resistance, the FDA study says.

Those efforts "are succeeding to some extent," but this study and others show antibiotic overuse "is still a big problem," says Adam Hersh, assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah. He says overuse of azithromycin and other broad-spectrum antibiotics "is contributing to the epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections."

Other drug categories down from 2002-2010 were allergy medications (61%); pain (14%); and cough/cold without expectorant (42%). But prescriptions increasing include corticosteroids for asthma (14%); contraceptives (up 93%, possibly because of secondary uses, such as acne) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (46%).

"It's good news that cough and cold prescriptions are down, given that they don't work and can have serious side effects," says Danny Benjamin, a professor of pediatric medicine at Duke University. In 2008, the FDA advised against them for the youngest children. But he says the rise in prescriptions for ADHD and off-label use of proton pump inhibitors for certain gastrointestinal disorders is worrisome. Safety of long-term ADHD drugs is unknown, he says. The study cites 358,000 outpatient prescriptions for lansoprazole (Prevacid) for infants, despite labeling that it is not effective in babies under 1 year.

source: USA TODAY