Amantadine and rimantadine to prevent and treat influenza A in children and the elderly

People with cystic fibrosis are particularly prone to chest infections caused by bacteria that are hard to treat, but one possible treatment is a class of antibiotic known as the macrolides. There’s been a Cochrane Review of this since 2003 and the fourth update was published in February 2024. Here's Kevin Southern from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the UK, who is one of its authors and an Editor for the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis Group, to tell us more.

There are several Cochrane Reviews of the effects of physical activity and these were added to in June 2024 with a qualitative evidence synthesis of factors that influence it for people with bipolar disorder. We asked one of the authors, Gavin Breslin, from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland to tell us more about the condition and the review in this podcast.

There are many Cochrane Reviews relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. These were added to in June 2024 by a new review of prognosis, specifically to look at the impact of undernutrition. Here are two of the authors, Juan Franco and Brenda Bongaerts from the Institute of General Practice, Medical Faculty of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf in Germany, to tell us more.

The Cochrane Back and Neck Group have produced approximately 100 Cochrane reviews, covering the effects of interventions and the accuracy of diagnostic tests. One of these, relevant to the detection of spinal injury in children, was updated in March 2024. We asked lead author, Emma Tavender from Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne Australia to tell us about the latest findings in this podcast.

There are more than 100 Cochrane Reviews relevant to the care of people with cystic fibrosis and an update for the one looking at the effects of nebulisers was published in November 2023. Here's the new lead author, Gemma Stanford, from the Royal Brompton Hospital in London UK to tell us about it.

The Cochrane Eyes and Vision US Project prepares and maintains reviews across a wide range of conditions. These include neovascular age-related macular degeneration and their new review of its treatment by anti-vascular endothelial growth factor biosimilars was published in June 2024. Here’s one of the authors, Sueko Ng from the Department of Ophthalmology in the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in the USA, to tell us more about the condition and this treatment.

The Library contains several reviews of treatment for people with influenza and, one of these, published in November 2014, looks at the evidence for amantadine and rimantadine.

People with cystic fibrosis are particularly susceptible to chest infection. It’s important to find treatments for these infections and a Cochrane Review from Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis examines the evidence for the use of antibiotics. Nikki Rowbotham, respiratory paediatrician, who is based in the East Midland in the UK and one of the authors of the June 2023 update of the review, tells us more in this podcast.

Since 2002, Cochrane has maintained a series of reviews on interventions to prevent obesity in children and young people. The sixth update, focusing separately on those aged 5 to 11 and 12 to 18 years of age, was published in April 2024. We asked one of the authors, Francesca Spiga from Bristol Medical School in the UK to tell us about the importance of the reviews and the latest findings and she prepared this podcast, which was recorded using ElevenLabs.

There are many Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth reviews of interventions to prevent health problems in babies that are born early. One of these was updated in April 2024, looking at the evidence on the effects of receiving magnesium sulphate prior to early birth. Lead author, Emily Shepherd from the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and University of Adelaide in Australia tells us about the latest findings in this podcast, with a focus on the prevention of cerebral palsy.