Popular knowledge concerning discovery of penicillinis confronted with documented historical facts, which concentrate on quest for drug, rather than description of an antibiosis as an experimental microbiological phenomenon. Vigorous drug discovery phase, including active substance isolation and purification, followed by crucial experiment with infected mice, undertaken in William Dunn School of Pathology in Oxford under H.W. Florey in early forties, unlike activities which took place in A. Fleming laboratory in London during 1928–29 period, proved decisive for starting industrial development. The penicillin drug active substance was manufactured in the USA, first in experimental agricultural pilot plant for deep fermentation in Peoria, Illinois and later in ca. 20 pharmaceutical companies which joined governmental supply action led by War Production Board. Paradoxically, despite unprecedented effort focusedon structure elucidation and synthesis, penicillin– the wonder drug, which significantly contributed to victory of allied forces in the world war II, remained a substance of unknown molecular architecture past the end of 1945, when Nobel Prize for its discovery was awarded.

In recent years the number of new on sets of infections caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis among children has increased. Since diagnosing such infections tends to prove difficult we present recommendations which are aimed at simplifying the process of diagnosis and treatment and rendering it more effective.

The article refers to the basic knowledge of ophtalmological examination in children. It describes an examination of visual acuity as well as anterior and posterior segment of eye. We also discuss most popular disorders in vision organ in pediatric practice.

Adverse immune responses to foods affect approximately 0.5–3% of children in westernized countries. Food-induced allergic reactions are responsible for a variety of symptoms and disorders involving the skin, gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, and can beattributed to IgE-mediated and/or non-IgE-mediated mechanisms. Diagnosis requires a careful medical history, and, in many cases, an oral food challenge.

Diarrhea occurs in 20–50% of travelers and it isthe most common health problem connected with traveling.The course is usually mild, afebrile, with loose stools without blood and mucous. However, in young children and elderly people the disease can be more severe, with fever, weakness and may quickly resultin dehydration. The most frequent causes of traveler’s diarrhea and recommendations of prophylaxis are discussed.

Fever is considered to be a physiologic mechanism that has beneficial effects in fighting infection. However, in the presence of fever, parents become very concernedand aim to “normalize” their child’s temperature. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations indicate that the primary goal of treating a child with fever is to improve the child’s overall comfort rather than focus on the normalization of body temperature. Ibuprofen is one of the medications used to treat feverand pain, and its dose is 10 mg/kg every 6 hours. The Canadian Paediatric Society advises against Ibuprofen if a child is not “drinking reasonably well”. The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend its use in infants under 6 months of age because a lack of safety data. Paracetamol is the other drug used indoses of 10 to 15 mg/kg per dose given every 4 to 6 hours. Hepatotoxicity is its side effect which usually only occurs with acute or chronic overdose. Overdosing usually occurs when adult preparations are used ininfants and young children. Alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol may be summative antipyretic effects but instructions to parents need to be given carefully.

Otitis media with effusion (OME) is very common in children, especially between the age of one and three years with the prevalence of 10% to 30% and a cumulative incidenceof 80% at the age of four years. OME is definedas middle ear effusion without signs or symptoms of anacute infection. OME may occur as a primary disorder oras a sequel to acute otitis media. The functional effectof OME is a conductive hearing level of about 25 to30 dB associated with fluid in the middle ear. Both, the high incidence and the high rate of spontaneous resolution, suggest that the presence of OME is a natural phenomenon, its presence at some stage in child  hood being a normal finding. Notwithstanding this, somechildren with OME may go on to develop chronic otitis media with structural changes (tympanic membraneretraction pockets, erosion of portions of the ossicularchain and cholesteatoma), language delays and behavioural problems. It remains uncertain whether or notany of these findings are direct consequences of OME. The most common medical treatment options include the use of decongestants, mucolytics, steroids, antihistamines and antibiotics. The effectiveness of these therapies has not been established. Surgical treatment options include grommet (ventilation or tympanostomytube) insertion, adenoidectomy or both.

Not only blood pressure lowering, but also reduction of cardiovascular risk and regression of organ damageare the main target of early recognition and treatmentof hypertension. In children with primary hypertension the antihypertensive treatment includes: increasein physical activity, dietary modification based on the principles of the DASH diet and the pharmacological inhibition of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system. Diuretics and beta-adrenergic blockers, because of their disadvantageo us metabolic effects, should beused only when special, additional conditions exist.

The management of sunscreens has to balance their protective effect against erythema, photo carcinogenesisand photo ageing without their potential toxicity on human’s health. The protection against ultraviolet radiation offered by sunscreens was recently standardized in the European Union. The UV filters in sunscreen shave long been authorized for use by the EU authorityon the basis of data from studies on phototoxicity, systemictoxicity, carcinogenicity, irritation and sensitization. Knowledge of harmful effects of UVR resulted in recommendation of sunscreens use. Theoretical ability of sunscreens to total inhibition of vitamin synthesis inepidermis and their toxicity raised a wide discussion inliterature whether sunscreen use can impost harmful effects on human health. In the article literature reviewon the subject is presented and strong recommendationon sunscreen use in everyday life is given.

Hepcidin was first described in 2000 as defensin-likeantibacterial and antifungal peptide. It also plays a key role in regulation of iron metabolism. Authors present basic functions of hepcidin and the most important haematological and non-haematological disorders connected with hepcidin deficiency or increased hepcidin’s synthesis. Clinical implications of hepcidin significance in these diseases in the future of clinical practice are discussed.

Despite the progress in medicine, the pulmonary hypertension remains a big medical problem and frequent complication in congenital heart defects with left‑to‑rightshunts. Perioperative pharmacological treatment and new surgical techniques improved prognosis in this group of patients.

Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a congenital purered blood cell aplasia, usually diagnosed before the age of 2 years, affecting 7 per milion live births. The main clinical symptom is a profound isolated normochromic, usually macrocytic, anemia with normal leukocytes and platelets counts. Congenital malformations are present in approximately 50% of affected individuals, growth retardation in 30%. DBA has been associated with mutations in several ribosomal protein (RP) genes in about 53% of patients. About 80% of patients respond clinically to corticosteroids. The other group of patients needs chronic transfusions. Bone marrow transplantation is the only curative, but potentially dangerous, therapy for DBA. In spite of significant improvements in patient care, DBA still remains a disorder that reduces quality and length of life. The purpose of this article is to review the diagnostic criteria, genetic aspects, differential diagnosis and the available treatment options.

Introduction.
The study focuses on nutrition of underweight children as compared to current nutritional recommendations.

Aim.
The aim of the study was to analyse the diets ofunder weight children aged 13–36 months in comparison to a group of children with normal body weight and with reference to nutritional recommendations.

Material and methods.
The sample of the studied children (n = 290) was isolated from the representative nation-wide population of children aged 13–36 months (n = 400; two-stage sampling; sampling frames – listof 379 districts in Poland, list of personal identity numbers PESEL) and divided into 3 groups: group I – 58 children with severe underweight (BMI z-score below -2); group II – 50 children with underweight (BMI z-scorebetween -1 and -2); group III – 182 children with normal body weight (BMI z-score between -1 and +1). There maining group of children (n = 110) had an excessive body weight (z-score BMI ≥ +1,0) and was not analysed in this paper.The diets of the studied children were assessed using an original questionnaire with 3-day diet records andtheir energy and nutritional value was calculated using Dieta 4.0 computer programme. The outcomes as well as the composition of daily food rations were compared to recommendations. Correlations and differences between children’s nutritional status indices as well as energy and nutrient in take were evaluated using χ2 testand Kruskal-Wallis test, respectively.

Results.
Children in all studied groups came mainly from urban areas. However, the percentage of severely underweight toddlers (group I) in rural populations washigher than in the two other groups. Parents of children with severe underweight were less educated more oftenthan parents of children from the other studied groups. Severely underweight children (group I) ate lessmilk and milk products, meat, poultry and cold meats, fats, vegetables and fruits as compared to children with normal body weight (group III). Daily food rations of children with severe underweight (group I) had the lowest energy value. The intake of vitamin D and potassiumin all 3 groups of the studied children was insufficient ascompared to recommendations. The analysis of nutrient intake also revealed vitamin E and iodine deficiency in children with severe underweight (group I).

Conclusions.
Familial and environmental factors havean impact on nutritional status of children with severe underweight. The modification of diet is required in group of children with severe underweight.

Aim.
The objective of the work was to assess occurrence of central auditory processing disorders in children with dyslalia.

Material and method.
The material included 60 childrenat the age of 7–9 years old being under long-term speech therapy care due to articulation disorders. All the children were subjected to the phoniatric and speech examination, including tonal and impedance audiometry, speech therapist’s consultation and psychologist’s consultation. Electrophysiological (N2, P2, N2, P2, P300 record) and following psychoacoustic test of central auditory functions were performed (Frequency Pattern Test).

Results.
Analysis of the results revealed disorders in the process of sound analysis within frequency and P300 wave latency prolongation in children with dyslalia.

Conclusions.
Auditory processing disorders may besignificant in development of correct articulation in children; they also may explain unsatisfactory results of long-term speech therapy.

Article addresses general principles related to the reimbursement of medical products, food stuffs for particular nutritional and medical products, which will apply from 1 January 2012. Particular attention was devoted to the new rules of prescribing, by authorized persons, with particular emphasis on the responsibility of doctors for giving a prescription discrepant form the current medical indication, for prescribing refunded product for uninsured patient or giving a prescription against the principles of the Ministry of Health.The last part of the article presents possibilities of the substitution of the prescribed products by the pharmacists.