A bacteriological study in hospitalized children with pneumonia.

A total of 110 consecutive hospitalized children with severe lower respirator tract infection were studied with the aim of determining the main bacterial pathogens responsible. Of these, 57 were classified as severe pneumonia and 53 as very severe pneumonia. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common organism identified in 24.6% and 32.1% of cases of severe and very severe pneumonia, respectively, followed by Haemophilus influenzae type b, which was seen in 17.5% and 20.8%, respectively. The highest diagnostic yield was with the latex particle agglutination test on serum and urine. Blood culture was positive in only ten of the 110 children. No difference was found between the aetiological agents identified in severe and very severe cases of pneumonia. Therefore, the use of different parenteral antibiotics for two clinically defined groups of pneumonia, as recommended by WHO in their standard case management guidelines for the ARI control programme, does not seem necessary.