Abstract
Pneumonia is the most common cause of mortality in child under five years of age. The objective of the study was to assess socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of children under 5 hospitalized for pneumonia. Material and method: We conducted a 6 months prospective study from June 1st, 2016 to December 31st, 2016 in the general pediatric service in the Pediatric Department of Gabriel Touré Teaching Hospital in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. Result: We have selected 63 cases of pneumonia according to our definition criteria, i.e. 2.2% of hospitalizations for children aged 1 to 59 months. The average age was 14 months. Infants under 2 years accounted for 82.53%. The sex ratio was 1.2. Seventy eight percent came from an unfavorable socio-economic background. The majority of mothers were uneducated (71.42%). Breastfeeding was exclusive up to 6 months in 50.79% of patients. Vaccination according to the national program was not up to date in 27% of patients. The average consultation time was 18 days. On admission, 81% of the patients had a fever, 93.64% had a tachypnea and 58.73% had crackling rales at pulmonary auscultation. Hypoxemia was present in 58.73%. Severe anemia was present in 79.36%. Radiologically, opacity was found in 42 patients (66.66%). The blood culture was positive in 8.3%. Beta-lactams were first-line prescribed in all patients. The case fatality rate was 9.52%. The factors associated with mortality were age less than 14 months (p = 0.08), adverse socio-economic conditions (p = 0.0003) and the presence of hypoxemia at the entrance (p = 0.01). Conclusion: Pneumonia remains major cause of morbidity and mortality in our context. Emphasis should be put on preventive measures.
Highlights
Pneumonia is the most common cause of mortality in child under five years of age [1] [2]
Result: We have selected 63 cases of pneumonia according to our definition criteria, i.e. 2.2% of hospitalizations for children aged 1 to 59 months
We selected 63 cases of pneumonia according to our definition criteria, i.e. 2.2% of hospitalizations for children from 1 to 59 months
Summary
Pneumonia is the most common cause of mortality in child under five years of age [1] [2]. The annual incidence in the industrialized countries is estimated between 36 and 40/1000 in children under 5 years [3]. 1.9 million children under 5 die from pneumonia mainly in developing countries [2]. To reduce the mortality attributable to it, the World Health Organization (WHO) has implemented the global strategy for the management of acute respiratory infections in children under five. This is based on early clinical screening and rational use of antibiotic therapy in primary and peripheral hospitals [6]
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