Aetiology of Acute Respiratory Infections in Children under Five Years in Nakuru, Kenya

Abstract

Introduction nbsp Acute Respiratory Infections ARI is the most common causes of both illness and mortality nbsp Objectives nbsp This study aimed to identify the aetiology of acute respiratory illnesses in subjects from selected health facilities in Nakuru Country in Kenya nbsp Method nbsp This was a case control study which recruited parents or guardians with children less than years of age who visited the selected health facilities with suspected ARI Controls were matched for age and sex Throat and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from the children to isolation and detection of bacterial and viral agents respectively A questionnaire was used to obtain socio demographic information from the study subjects Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors associated with ARI agents nbsp Results nbsp Bacteria were isolated in of sampled patients with nbsp Streptococcus nbsp pyogenes nbsp andStreptococcus nbsp viridans being the most predominant At least one ARI respiratory associated virus in of the specimen collected from the children with nbsp Influenza A nbsp nbsp RSV and nbsp Influenza B nbsp being more common Mixed infections were present in of the sampled children The clinical predictors of bacterial isolation were fever high respiratory rate cough and stridor while high respiratory rate and cough were more associated with viral detection nbsp Conclusion nbsp The study revealed that influenza viruses and nbsp Streptococcus nbsp pyogenes nbsp are the major viral and bacterial etiologies of ARI respectively in this study population Mixed infections are also common among the study subjects