Pneumonia among young infants in rural Southeast Asia (Bohol Island, Philippines).

OBJECTIVE: To develop a clinical algorithm that can be used to identify pneumonia deaths in young infants in developing countries and estimate the disease burden in this population. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Infants younger than 60 days hospitalized with signs of severe pneumonia who underwent clinical, microbiologic and radiological evaluation were the subjects. Stepwise logistic regression and subtractive iterative process were used to derive the algorithm. RESULTS: Three-hundred and one infants had either clinical or radiographic pneumonia. The case fatality rate for 185 infants with radiographic pneumonia was 21%vs. 5% for clinical pneumonia. Age below 7 days was associated with an increased risk of dying. Among 7- to 59-day-old infants, poor feeding, cyanosis and absence of crackles were predictors of death from pneumonia. Using logistic regression, an algorithm consisting of any one of three clinical signs (cyanosis, poor feeding and abnormally sleepy) was developed in infants aged 7-59 days; 80% of deaths and 50% of those with radiographic pneumonia have at least one of these signs. It performed better than both the WHO case management algorithm and the IMCI algorithm. CONCLUSION: Radiographic pneumonia is a common and serious infection among infants below 2 months old in the Philippines. Cyanosis, poor feeding and abnormal sleepiness are simple signs that can be used by health workers to identify seriously ill infants who are most likely to die from pneumonia.

Etiology and epidemiology of community-acquired pneumonia in adults requiring hospital admission: A prospective study in rural Central Philippines.

BACKGROUND: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality among adults worldwide. However, the distribution of the etiology of CAP varies from one country to another, with limited data from rural areas. METHODS: A prospective hospital-based study on adult CAP was conducted in Leyte, Central Philippines from May 2010 to May 2012. Blood, sputum, and nasopharyngeal samples obtained from patients were used to identify pathogens using standard microbiological culture methods and PCR. RESULTS: Of the 535 patients enrolled, 38% were younger than 50 years old. More than half of the patients had an underlying disease, including pulmonary tuberculosis (22%). The detection rate was higher for bacteria (40%) than viruses (13%). Haemophilus influenzae (12%) was the most commonly detected bacterium and influenza virus (5%) was the most commonly detected virus. The proportion of CAP patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection was higher in the younger age group than in the older age group. Among CAP patients, 14% died during hospitalization, and drowsiness on admission and SpO2 <90% were independent risk factors for mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Bacterial infections contribute substantially to the number of hospitalizations among CAP patients in rural Philippines. This study also highlights the importance of treatment of tuberculosis in reducing the burden of adult CAP in the country.

Central nervous system infection is an important cause of death in underfives hospitalised with World Health Organization (WHO) defined severe and very severe pneumonia.

Over 6 years, 1667 children aged 2-59 months admitted for pneumonia [1287 severe and 380 very severe] were studied. The case fatality rate (CFR) in children with severe pneumonia was 2.1% and 14.3% with CNS infection, with very severe pneumonia the CFR was 18.9%, 10.4% in those with hypoxemia and 43.6% with CNS infection. High CFRs were associated with CNS infection and inability to drink/cyanosis. The appropriate management of children with very severe pneumonia should include cerebrospinal fluid examination, oxygen monitoring and possibly ventilated support, suggesting that these are minimal standards of care at the district hospital.