Federal health officials are giving about $6 million to Wayne State University doctors and others seeking a faster, more accurate way to diagnose infants with serious infections. The five-year, $5.76 million National Institutes of Health grant was announced Tuesday. The Detroit university and Children's Hospital of Michigan are working with doctors with The Ohio State University, University of California, Davis, and affiliated medical centers. Prashant Mahajan, M.D., professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, chief of the Division of Emergency Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Wayne State University and Children's Hospital of Michigan, is a recipient of the grant award by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. Mahajan and his collaborators will study how febrile infants - babies 2 months or younger who are brought to emergency rooms with invasive bacterial infections - can avoid invasive procedures such as lumbar punctures, overuse of antibiotics and unnecessary hospitalizations through a new, rapid and more accurate testing to be developed by their research team. Properly diagnosing and treating such infants is "one of the most vexing issues in pediatrics," researchers said in a news release. Among their goals: Developing a system that brings diagnoses in a couple of hours instead of up to two days. The team has been evaluating febrile infants for 15 years.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150923/NEWS01/150929943/-5-76-million-grant-to-wayne-state-others-boosts-research-into
http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2015/09/grant-to-wayne-state-offers-new-hope-for-more-accurately-diagnosing-infants-with-serious-infections.aspx
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