Sultana Habibullah, Junaid Ashraf, Shakeel Aamir Mullick.
Pneumococcal infections in children under 5 in Karachi: a retrospective analysis.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;53(4):75-8.

Objectives: To analyze the hospital case records of children under five years of age for Pneumococcal pneumonia. Study type, settings and duration: Retrospective case record analysis of children admitted in pediatric units of Civil Hospital, Karachi, from 2011 to 2012. Subjects and Methods: This case record analysis was conducted on children under 5 years of age who were admitted and diagnosed to have pneumonia. The clinical criteria used for the diagnosis of pneumonia were taken from WHO (IMCI). Variables studied included age, gender, birth and feeding history, vaccination status, symptoms/signs on admission and diagnosis. Information was collected on a questionnaire. SPSS version 15 was used for analysis. Results: Out of 820 case records retrieved, diagnosis of pneumonia was written on the files in 637(78%). Fifty two percent (333) children were age appropriately vaccinated. Majority (62%) of children were up to 11 months of age and male to female ratio was 1.4:1. Commonest symptoms were fever, cough and respiratory distress. Pneumonia was severe in 124(19%) children and out of these 96 children were less than 12 months of age and they had a respiratory rate of more than 50 per minute with more than two danger signs. Pneumonia was more severe among un-vaccinated (schedule EPI immunization) group. Blood culture reports were available in only 14 children and none were positive for Streptococcal pneumoniae. Conclusion: Majority of the children with pneumonia were less than 12 months of age and severity of pneumonia was more in un-vaccinated children. Policy message: This study can be used as a baseline for pneumonia or pneumococcal disease in children under 5 years and compared with the drop in the pneumonia cases after the introduction of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in schedule EPI programme.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com