Standard management of acute respiratory infections in a children's hospital in Pakistan: impact on antibiotic use and case fatality.

Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in Pakistan. The National ARI Control Programme was launched in 1989 in order to reduce the mortality attributed to pneumonia, and rationalize the use of drugs in the management of patients with ARI. WHO's standard ARI case management guidelines were adopted to achieve these objectives. The medical staff at the Children's Hospital, Islamabad, were trained in such management in early 1990; further training sessions were conducted when new staff arrived. Data on outpatients were obtained from special ARI abstract registers, which have been maintained in the outpatient department since January 1990. Details on inpatients who were admitted with ARI were obtained from hospital registers. During the period 1989-92, the use of antibiotics in the outpatient department decreased from 54.6% to 22.9% (P < 0.0001). The case fatality rate (CFR) in children admitted with ARI fell from 9.9% to 4.9% (P < 0.0001), while the overall case fatality rate fell from 8.7% to 6.2%. Our results from a tertiary health care facility show that standard ARI case management reduced both antibiotic use and expenditure on drugs. Although the ARI case management criteria, which are more sensitive than the conventional diagnostic criteria of auscultation and radiography, led to more admissions, we believe that this strategy contributed to a significant reduction in the ARI case fatality rate.