Red Book 2024: Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases

For more than 85 years health care professionals have ＂referred to the Red Book＂ for trustworthy guidance on pediatric infectious disease prevention, management, and control.

The new 33rd edition continues this tradition of distinction with the latest clinical guidance on the manifestations, etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of more than 200 childhood infectious diseases.

Find the latest information about vaccines, emerging novel diseases, diagnostic modalities, and treatment recommendations from the combined expertise of the CDC, the FDA, the NIH, and hundreds of physician contributors.

Red Book guidance spans far beyond the pediatric practice to include family medicine, emergency medicine, public health, school health, and other medical specialties.

New in the 2024 Red Book

• All chapters were assessed for relevance in the dynamic environment that is the practice of pediatric medicine today, and every chapter has been modified since the last edition.
• The chapter Discussing Vaccines With Patients and Parents has been significantly revised.
• Two new chapters on COVID-19 and Mpox have been added.
• Greatly expanded tables, figures, and algorithms enable quick access to essential information.
• The System-Based Treatment Table has been moved to the beginning of the book and has been reordered so that the grouped recommendations by body system are more easily and quickly accessed.
• Standardized approaches to disease prevention through immunizations, antimicrobial prophylaxis, and infection-control practices have been updated throughout the Red Book.
• Reference to evidence-based policy recommendations have been updated throughout the Red Book.
• Appropriate chapters throughout the Red Book have been updated to be consistent with 2024 AAP and CDC vaccine recommendations, CDC recommendations for immunization of health care personnel, and drug recommendations from 2024 Nelson’s Pediatric Antimicrobial Therapy.
• The Breastfeeding and Human Milk chapter was updated to align with information in the 2022 AAP policy statement on breastfeeding.
• The listing of Codes for Commonly Administered Pediatric Vaccines, Toxoids, and Immune Globulins has been expanded.

David W. Kimberlin, MD, FAAP is the Editor of the 2021 AAP Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases (Red Book). He also was Editor of the 2015 and 2018 editions and was an Associate Editor of the 2012 and 2009 editions and served on the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases from 2005- 2011. Dr. Kimberlin is the Sergio Stagno, MD. Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases, Professor and Co-Division Director, Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research. His clinical and research interests include pediatric infectious diseases, antiviral therapeutics in rare diseases with a large unmet medical need, including neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections, congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease, congenital Zika infection, neonatal and infantile influenza infection, and neonatal enteroviral sepsis syndrome.

Elizabeth D. Barnett, MD, FAAP is an Associate Editor of the 2021 Red Book and was a member of the Committee on Infectious Diseases from 2014 - 2020. Dr. Elizabeth Barnett is Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine and Chief, Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. She leads the Refugee Health Assessment Program and the Pediatric Travel Clinic. Her clinical and research interests include vaccines and vaccine safety, refugee and immigrant medicine, travel medicine, and general pediatric infectious diseases.

Ruth Lynfield, MD, FAAP is an Associate Editor of the 2021 Red Book and has been a member of the Committee on Infectious Diseases since 2015. Dr. Lynfield is the State Epidemiologist and Medical Director at the Minnesota Department of Health. She leads Minnesota’s component of CDC’s Emerging Infections Program Active Bacterial Core Surveillance System, influenza projects, and healthcare-associated infections projects. She is also Adjunct Professor of Medicine, and Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. Her clinical and research interests include pediatric infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial stewardship, emerging infections, prevention and control of infectious diseases, and outbreak response.

Mark Sawyer, MD, FAAP is an Associate Editor of the 2021 Red Book and served on the Committee on Infectious Diseases from 2013- 2019. Dr. Sawyer is an infectious disease specialist at Rady Children’s Hospital and a professor of clinical pediatrics at UC San Diego. Additionally, Dr. Sawyer is vice chair for education in the UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics and the program director for the UC San Diego/Rady Children’s Pediatric Residency Program and the medical director of the UC San Diego Immunization Partnership. His clinical and research interests include pediatric infectious diseases, medical education, training, and working with public health on the delivery of vaccines and national vaccine policy.