van de Maat J, et al. - Via this cross-sectional, observational study of children between 1 month and 16 years of age presenting with fever at one of 28 European emergency departments on one random sampling day per month between November 1, 2014, and February 28, 2016, researchers assessed antibiotic prescription in these children with regard to variability and quantity. Among 5,177 children, comorbidities were reported in 617 children. Antibiotics were given to 1,454 (32%) of the 4,560 children without comorbidities, and 893 (61%) were second-line antibiotics. There was a high variation in the percentage of children receiving antibiotics across the surveyed countries (from 19% to 64%) with frequent use of second-line antibiotics. They recommend assessing the variability of prescriptions across hospitals, identification of drivers of suboptimal antibiotic prescription at the local level, and devising European guidelines for ensuring successful antibiotic stewardship initiatives in Europe aimed at reducing unnecessary prescription of antibiotics.