Acute lower respiratory infection among children in Aden September 2002 through February 2003

Abstract EN

Background : Acute lower respiratory infections (ALRTI) constitute a very important cause of morbidity and mortality among infants and children worldwide, particularly in developing nations.. Objectives : The main aim is to make a panoramic overview of ALRTI in under fives in Aden, Yemen. Methods : This is a prospective, descriptive, observational study including 284 children with ALRTI, admitted to Al-Wahda Hospital, Aden, from September 2002 through February 2003. Results and conclusions : Patients comprised 18.5% of total paediatric admissions in the study-period, thus indicating that ALRTI is a common cause of admission.

Males were 177 (60.6%) with a male: female ratio of 1.5 : 1.0 (significant, p <0.05).

Bronchopneumonia was the most common ALRTI (significant, p < 0.05%).

The age differences by type of ALRTI were found to be significant (p < 0.05).

Bronchopneumonia and lobar pneumonia attacked more significantly the wasted children while bronchiolitis involved them in a non-significant manner.

The major complications were acute gastroenteritis (AGE) among 51 patients (18%), seizures among 18 (6%) and cardiac failure (CCF) among 14 patients (5%).

AGE and CCF significantly attacked those <12 months of age (p < 0.05).

The case-fatality rate (CFR) was 3.5% which seems to be lower than expected, either because of a better manipulation of cases or because of a biased non-representative sample.

Death among females was significant (p < 0.05), and those < 12 months died almost in a significant proportion, compared with those ≥12 months (p~0.05).