Increasing Incidence of Serious Head and Neck Infections Among US Children, 2018-2023

Serena Yun-Chen Tsai; Stephanie Hadley; Amanda S Growdon; Kevin Sheng-Kai Ma; Jonathan M Mansbach

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2024.114458

Increasing Incidence of Serious Head and Neck Infections Among US Children, 2018-2023

J Pediatr. 2024 Dec 28:114458. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2024.114458. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Serena Yun-Chen Tsai¹, Stephanie Hadley², Amanda S Growdon², Kevin Sheng-Kai Ma³, Jonathan M Mansbach⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
² Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
³ Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Center for Global Health, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39736376
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2024.114458

Abstract

There has been a significant, post-pandemic increase in the incidence of serious head and neck infections (HNI) among children aged < 18 years since 2021, compared with the stable incidence of non-transmissible osteomyelitis and serious HNI in adults from 2018 to 2023. The etiology of this increase requires further study.