This May, the World Health Assembly (WHA) will vote on re-establishing a mandate for the WHO to address the health consequences of nuclear weapons and war.1 Health professionals and their associations should urge their governments to support such a mandate and support the new United Nations (UN) comprehensive study on the effects of nuclear war. The first atomic bomb exploded in the New Mexico desert 80 years ago, in July 1945. Three weeks later, two relatively small (by today’s standards), tactical-size nuclear weapons unleashed a cataclysm of radioactive incineration on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the end of 1945, about 213 000 people were dead.2 Tens of thousands more have died from late effects of the bombings. Last December, Nihon Hidankyo, a movement that brings together atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its ‘efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again’.3

Objective To examine the health, education and social inequities experienced by children with deafblindness in low- and middle-income countries. Design Secondary analysis of 36 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (2017–2020), using age-adjusted modified Poisson models to compare outcomes between children with and without deafblindness. Setting 36 low- and middle-income countries. Patients 446 233 children aged 2–17, including 232 children with deafblindness. Main outcome measures Education (primary school attendance rate, secondary school attendance rate, early childhood education and the Early Childhood Development Index), health (stunting, wasting, health insurance, diarrhoeal disease and acute respiratory infection) and well-being (inadequate supervision, violent discipline, living arrangements, birth registration and poverty status) were measured. Results Children with deafblindness faced inequities in health and education indicators compared with children with other disabilities an

Introduction The Irish Office of the State Pathologist (OSP) provides a forensic pathology service for cases of criminal, suspicious or unusual deaths as referred by the coroner. This study aims to review the paediatric and perinatal deaths referred to the OSP and compare them to existing standards and data. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted on all paediatric and perinatal cases (<18 years) referred to the OSP from 2018 to 2022. Postmortem examination (PME) reports were reviewed in line with the Royal College of Pathologists guidance. Case data results were then analysed independently and alongside previously published data for 2012–2017. Results 65 cases were identified. Confirmed homicide accounted for the highest proportion of referred cases at 31% (n=20). Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was the key cause under 1 years old (n=10/13). 91% of postmortem reports (2018–2022) met reporting standards. Paediatric and perinatal referrals remained consistent when compari

Objective To explore how birth weight and size-for-gestation may contribute to school absences and educational attainment and whether there are different associations across sex and income groups. Design Longitudinal linked cohort study. Methods Data were drawn from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative cohort of children born in 2000–2001; percentage of authorised and unauthorised absences from Year 1 to Year 11, and Key Stage test scores at ages 7, 11 and 16 in English and Maths were linked from the National Pupil Database. Birth outcomes and covariates were derived from the 9-month survey, and linear regressions with complex survey weights were fitted. Results Being born small-for-gestational-age (vs average-for-gestational-age) was associated with an increase of 0.47%, 0.55% and 0.40% in authorised absences in Years 1, 3 and 4 (n=6659) and with a reduction of 0.16–0.26 SD in all English and Maths test scores (n=6204). Similar associations were found for birth wei

Clinicians of all professions who treat children have an interest in the capabilities of their patients. Not least as to whether the child in front of them can make treatment decisions. We seek, briefly, to set out the clinical legal basis for a child’s capability (and its limits) in England and Wales in this regard. The Family Law Reform Act 1969 (FLRA) founded our present arrangements for children’s consent, bringing the age of majority (‘adulthood’) down from 21 to 18 years. The same Act made it possible for 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds to consent to surgical, medical and dental treatment, although it made no reference to consent for research. It has become customary to refer to this age group as ‘young people’, denoting the presumption of their capacity to provide consent for themselves, while remaining children until 18 years. The FLRA does not say anything about the cognitive abilities required of a particular child. Rather, it simply denotes the class of 16-year-olds and 17-yea

(16 May, 2025) Free Nick Brown (12 March, 2025) Alison Clayton (19 January, 2025) Robert Wheeler (15 January, 2025) Free Charles Moorcroft, Abigail Whitehouse, Jonathan Grigg (28 March, 2025) Charmaine Gray, Madeline Collings, Javier Benito, Roberto Velasco, Mark D Lyttle, Damian Roland, Suzanne Schuh, Bashar Shihabuddin, Maria Kwok, Prashant Mahajan, Mike Johnson, Joseph Zorc, Kajal Khanna, Adriana Yock-Corrales, Ricardo M Fernandes, Indumathy Santhanam, Baljit Cheema, Gene Yong-Kwang Ong, Thiagarajan

Objective Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is common in paediatric gastroenterology with intravenous iron increasingly utilised. While adult data are published for ferric derisomaltose (FDI), no paediatric data exist. Our aim was to assess the effectiveness and safety profile of FDI in paediatric gastroenterology. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Two UK referral centres (Edinburgh and Sheffield). Patients All paediatric gastroenterology patients who received FDI from June 2020 to June 2023. Main outcome measures Haematological and biochemical parameters were collected before and at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after treatment, when available, together with the need for repeated FDI infusions and FDI adverse events. Results Sixty-five patients were identified (54% male; median age 12.8 years, IQR 9.6–15.2), receiving 78 FDI infusions. After a single infusion, 38/59 (64%) patients (effectiveness analysis) completely corrected their anaemia and 6/59 (10%) improved from moderate-severe to

Objective As children hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are at risk of persistent chest radiograph (CXR) abnormalities and respiratory sequelae, we investigated factors associated with incomplete CXR resolution at 4 weeks and 12 months post-discharge in children from populations at high-risk of chronic lung disease. Design Secondary analysis−multicentre, placebo-controlled, randomised controlled trial. Settings and patients 324 children aged 3 months to ≤5 years hospitalised with radiographic-confirmed CAP were enrolled from seven hospitals in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. After 1–3 days of intravenous antibiotics, then 3 days of oral amoxicillin–clavulanate, they were randomised to extended (13–14 days) or standard (5–6 days) courses of antibiotics. Intervention CXRs were performed at admission, 4 weeks, and 12 months post-discharge and reviewed in a blinded manner. Main outcome measures Radiographic changes of pneumonia at 4 weeks and 12 months post-discharg