UCL in the News: WHO guidelines for treatment of pneumonia infected children under one

Lisa McNally, Centre for International Health & Development, UCL Institute of Child Health, and colleagues from University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, measured predictors of treatment failure and causes of non-responsive pneumonia in 358 children under five years old admitted to hospital with severe pneumonia in Durban, South Africa. …

The authors say: "Polymicrobial disease is a key predictor of treatment failure and there is a need for rapid low cost diagnostic methods to assist clinicians."

Dr McNally and her team also raise the issue of the increasing importance of HIV-exposed yet uninfected children as a public health concern. …

Whilst the widespread roll-out of prevention of mother to child HIV transmission strategies will reduce the number of pneumonia infected children admitted to hospital, the raised risk in HIV-exposed, uninfected children will assume increasing importance.

The authors conclude: "For children younger than one year, the present guidelines for treatment of severe pneumonia are inadequate because of high failure rates in infants born to HIV-infected mothers, and these guidelines need to be revised." …

'Medical News Today'