{"doi":"10.15585/mmwr.mm7222a5","title":"<i>Notes from the Field:</i> Update on Pediatric Intracranial Infections — 19 States and the District of Columbia, January 2016–March 2023","abstract":"In May 2022, CDC began an investigation of a possible increase in pediatric intracranial infections, particularly those caused by Streptococcus bacteria, during the preceding year (1).January 2016-May 2022 data from a large, geographically diverse network of children's hospitals showed altered patterns in pediatric intracranial infections after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (1).In this update, extended hospitalization data through March 2023 from 37 hospitals in 19 states and the District of Columbia showed a higher-than-expected number of pediatric intracranial infections beginning in August 2021, with a large peak during winter 2022-2023.Pediatric intracranial infections are recognized as a severe complication of viral respiratory infection and sinusitis (2), and the winter 2022-2023 peak coincided with spikes in respiratory virus circulation* , (3,4).Even during this peak, intracranial infections remained rare.CDC continues to track trends in pediatric intracranial infections and recommends that all persons aged 18 years remain current with recommended vaccinations, including influenza and COVID-19. To characterize national trends in pediatric intracranial infections, CDC analyzed pediatric hospitalizations for brain abscesses, epidural empyemas, and subdural empyemas reported to the Children's Hospital Association's Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) by 37 tertiary referral children's hospitals in 19 states and the District of Columbia.The included hospitals consistently reported to PHIS during January 1, 2016-March 31, 2023 (the most recent data available when the analysis was performed). All inpatient encounters with persons aged 18 years that had a primary or secondary International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification discharge diagnosis code G06.0 (intracranial abscess and granuloma) or G06.2 (extradural and subdural abscess, unspecified) during the study period were included.Because the study period was extended from * https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/research/rsv-net/dashboard.html https://gis.cdc.gov/GRASP/Fluview/PedFluDeath.html https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html Population denominators were not available; therefore, analysis was limited to hospitals that reported data for each month during the study period.* The median and maximum number of cases per month during 2016-2019, by U.S. Census Bureau region. Data from 37 children's hospitals in 19 states and the District of Columbia.The number of hospitals that provided data in each U.S. Census Bureau region were as follows: five (Northeast Region), 13 (Midwest Region), 11 (South Region), and eight (West Region).","journal":"MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report","year":2023,"id":358508,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7629,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":479764,"name":"Matt Hall","orcid":"0000-0001-7778-5887","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264784,"name":"Adam L. Hersh","orcid":"0000-0002-0148-046X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":91698,"name":"Samir S. Shah","orcid":"0000-0001-7902-7000","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":227082,"name":"Stephanie J. Schrag","orcid":"0000-0002-8113-2544","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":497124,"name":"Adam L. Cohen","orcid":"0000-0003-0591-1009","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":339637,"name":"Emma K. Accorsi","orcid":"0000-0002-7443-7921","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":4,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:13:43.629667Z","pmid":"37262008","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}