Worldwide guidelines for respiratory tract infections: community-acquired pneumonia.

The management of respiratory tract infections is a complex process. Concern over increasing levels of bacterial resistance and the inappropriate use of antibiotics has led to the development of clinical guidelines for the treatment of respiratory tract infections. Despite the development of these guidelines, a consensus on the optimal care for lower respiratory tract infections has not been attained. Guidelines for the management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) have been developed since the 1990s in the USA, Canada, and a number of European countries. Constant re-evaluation of guidelines for CAP is necessary to ensure that the recommendations that were made in the early 1990s still hold true in the new millennium.