IDWeek 2018 includes the annual meeting of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary as a society this year.
Dr. Gary S. Marshall
Paul Spearman, MD, the PIDS president, specifically highlighted some of the special 40th anniversary events: The Stanley A. Plotkin Lectureship in Vaccinology will be held on Friday, Oct. 5. “This is an annual highlight for PIDS in honor of Stanley Plotkin, the founder of PIDS and [an] inspiration to all of us. We are delighted to have Gary Marshall as the speaker this year giving a talk entitled “Vaccine Hesitancy, History and Human Nature,” Dr. Spearman wrote in an article posted on the PIDS website.
He noted that the PIDS anniversary special celebration, dinner, and lecture in honor of the contributions of George McCracken and John Nelson also will be held Oct. 5.
Throughout the meeting, the latest data and practices for the treatment of infants and children will be featured. Although pediatric issues will be discussed in many sessions, there are a number of events specifically dedicated to pediatric cases.
Of particular interest, on Wednesday morning, Oral Abstract Session 31 will focus on “Infant Viral Infections.” Talks will include “Role of Maternal Antibodies in Protection Against Postnatal Cytomegalovirus Acquisition,” by Frances Saccoccio, MD, PhD, and “Effect of Nasopharyngeal Pneumococcal Carriage on RSV and hMPV Illness Severity in Infants in Nepal,” by Alastair Murray.
On Thursday morning, the symposium “Hot Topics in Pediatric Infectious Diseases” will feature talks by experts in the field detailing this year’s important clinical advances and discoveries that have the potential to impact clinical care.
The Thursday afternoon poster session “Pediatric Antimicrobial and Diagnostic Stewardship” will focus on topics such as “Variation in Antibiotic Use Among Neonates Hospitalized in United States Academically Affiliated Centers,” which will be presented by Prachi Singh, DO, and “Alternative Antibiotic Prescribing for Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in Pediatric Patients in Relation to Allergy Status,” to be presented by Ankita Desai, MD.
There also will be a poster session that afternoon focused on “Maternal-Child Infections” that will feature “Risk Factors for Congenital Infection in the United States: Analysis of the Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID),” by Angela F. Veesenmeyer, MD, and “The Effect of Prenatal Screening for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) on Chlamydial Conjunctivitis in Infants,” by Natalie Banniettis, MD.
Later that same day, “Mano-a-Mano III,” an interactive session on “Controversies in Pediatric ID,” will focus on the tuberculin skin test vs. the interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) for TB identification, the use of vancomycin therapy for meningitis, and the value of respiratory viral panel testing.
As part of the program committee, Marsha S. Anderson, MD, FIDSA, from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, serves as this year’s IDWeek chair, for the PIDS portion of the meeting, and Roberta L. DeBiasi, MD, of the Children’s National Health System serves as vice chair.