News & Updates

On April 26, 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Declared a Public Health Emergency for H1N1 Flu (previously called swine flu). Communities around the world are on alert and are taking measures to protect people from illness caused by infection with this particular type of influenza virus or flu.

Status epilepticus—continuous, unrelenting seizures that continue beyond several minutes—is a serious, life-threatening condition that affects up to 60,000 children and adults in the United States every year. Such seizures may occur in anyone who has a seizure disorder, often called epilepsy, or in response to such conditions as infection around the brain, brain tumor, head injury, very high fever, or very low blood sugar levels.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Pediatric Seizure Study. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host today, Mr. Bob Bock, Press Officer, NICHD.

The scenario unfolds almost every day in the United States. A crowd gathers at a playground, or perhaps on a soccer field. A child has fallen to the ground, gripped by a seizure. Usually, the twitching and jerking stop within a few minutes.

Malaria—a disease caused by a single-celled parasite—can result in severe headache, high fever, chills, and vomiting. Worldwide, an estimated 300 to 500 million clinical cases of malaria occur each year, and the disease kills more than 1 million children annually.