Larry K. Kociolek, MD is an Attending Physician, Infectious Diseases; Associate Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control; Irene Heinz Given and John La Porte Given Professorship in Pediatrics and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. With interest in the areas of healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control, particularly Clostridium difficile infections, infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, infections in immunocompromised children, Kawasaki Disease. Other areas of investigation include the use of whole-genome sequencing to assess antibiotic resistance determinants and virulence factors of emerging strains of C. difficile, namely DH/NAP11/106, as well as identifying transmission and evolution of C. difficile clones in a pediatric population.
Calling All Experts and Researchers: Share Your Insights on Dengue, Prevention, Detection and Vaccines.
15-Apr-2024 08:30:44 AM EDT
While neurological complications of COVID-19 in children are rare, in contrast to adults, an international expert review of positive neuroimaging findings in children with acute and post-infectious COVID-19 found that the most common abnormalities resembled immune-mediated patterns of disease involving the brain, spine, and nerves. Strokes, which are more commonly reported in adults with COVID-19, were much less frequently encountered in children. The study of 38 children, published in the journal Lancet, was the largest to date of central nervous system imaging manifestations of COVID-19 in children.
10-Mar-2021 11:20:32 AM EST
New questions are at the forefront as a study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology from nine children’s hospitals finds that most asymptomatic children who tested positive for COVID-19 had relatively low levels of the virus compared to symptomatic children. The authors caution that the reason for this finding is unclear and more questions need to be answered. Were the asymptomatic children generally tested later in their disease, and were their viral loads potentially higher closer to the beginning of their infections? If tested early in disease, would asymptomatic children have viral loads as high as symptomatic children? Or do asymptomatic children typically not carry as much virus as children with symptoms? If so, how would lower viral loads impact the risk of transmission? These questions are essential to further clarify the public health impact of pediatric COVID-19.
22-Oct-2020 01:00:16 PM EDT
“C difficile is an important cause of health care- and community-associated diarrheal illness in children and sustained cure is difficult to achieve in some patients. The fidaxomicin pediatric trial was the first randomized controlled trial of C difficile infection treatment in children,”
“We found an immune response in infants colonized with C. difficile, which might be beneficial as they get older, although we are still studying the extent and duration of this natural immunization”
- Kids Might Be Naturally Immunized After C. Difficile Colonization in Infancy