Abstract
BackgroundIn Bangladesh, pneumonia has a higher mortality among malnourished children aged <5 years. Evaluating pneumonia etiology among malnourished children may help improve empiric treatment guidelines.MethodsDuring April 2015—December 2017, we conducted a case-control study among severe acute malnourished (SAM) children aged <5 years admitted to the Dhaka hospital of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). We enrolled hospital admitted SAM children with clinical or radiological pneumonia as cases (during April 2015 to March 2017) and hospital admitted SAM children without any respiratory symptom in the past 10 days before admission as controls (during February 2016 to December 2017). We tested nasopharyngeal wash from both case and control for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus (HMPV), influenza viruses, human parainfluenza viruses (HPIV), rhinovirus and adenovirus by singleplex real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. To identify the independent association of pneumonia with viral pathogens during February 2016 to March 2017, we used multivariable logistic regression for calculating adjusted odds ratios.ResultsWe enrolled 360 cases and 334 controls. For case and control the median age was 8 months (IQR: 5–13) and 11 months (IQR: 6–18) (p = 0.001) respectively. Weight/age Z-score was -4.3 (SD ±0.7) for cases and -4.1 (SD ±1.1) for controls (p = 0.01). Among cases 68% had both clinical and radiological pneumonia, 1% had clinical pneumonia and 31% had only radiological pneumonia. Respiratory virus detection was high in cases compared to controls [69.9% (251) vs. 44.8% (148), p = 0.0001]. The most frequently detected viruses among cases were rhinoviruses (79, 22.0%) followed by RSV (32, 8.9%), adenovirus (23, 6.4%), HPIV (22, 6.1%), influenza virus (16, 4.5%), and HMPV (16, 4.5%). Among the controls, rhinoviruses (82, 24.8%) were most commonly detected one followed by adenovirus (26,7.9%), HMPV (5, 1.5%), HPIV (4, 1.2%), RSV (3, 0.9%), and influenza virus (2, 0.6%). RSV (OR 13.1; 95% CI: 1.6, 106.1), influenza virus (OR 8.7; 95% CI: 1.0, 78.9), HPIV (3.8; 95% CI: 1.0, 14.8), and HMPV (2.7; 95% CI: 1.3, 5.5) were independently associated with pneumonia while compared between 178 cases and 174 controls.ConclusionViral etiology of pneumonia in SAM children were mainly attributable to RSV, influenza, HPIV and HMPV. Our study findings may help in planning further studies targeting vaccines or drugs against common respiratory viruses responsible for pneumonia among SAM children.
Highlights
Viral etiology of pneumonia in severe acute malnourished (SAM) children were mainly attributable to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, human parainfluenza viruses (HPIV) and human metapneumovirus (HMPV)
Our study findings may help in planning further studies targeting vaccines or drugs against common respiratory viruses responsible for pneumonia among SAM children
Pneumonia is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children aged less than five years in low and middle income countries [1] where it is commonly associated with malnutrition [2]
Summary
Pneumonia is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children aged less than five years in low and middle income countries [1] where it is commonly associated with malnutrition [2]. In 2010, there were an estimated 120 million episodes of pneumonia in children aged less than five years of which 14 million developed severe complications requiring hospitalization [3]. Pneumonia is a common co-morbidity in children presenting with malnutrition and can increase the risk of death 15 fold [2]. An atypical presentation of pneumonia can delay diagnosis and appropriate care, increasing the risk of morbidity and mortality in such populations [5]. In Bangladesh, pneumonia has a higher mortality among malnourished children aged
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