Acute respiratory infections in young children comparative findings in emergency rooms in Accra, (Ghana) and Harare (Zimbabwe).

A descriptive study of the emergency room outcome of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) in children aged 0-3 years in the department of Child health of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Ghana and Parirenyatwa Hospital (PH), Zimbabwe was undertaken in June-July 1993. Each hospital's emergency room received over one thousand patients during the period with ARI contributing 22.4% to 45.5% of all admissions. KBTH had the lower incidence of ARI; probably as a result of the general lack of knowledge of ARI, resulting in late case of identification and referral for treatment. In PH, the colder environmental temperatures in June/July, the comprehensive ARI control programme and the HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis epidemic could in part explain the relatively high attendance of patients with ARI to the emergency room. Our study shows an appreciable decline in the severer forms of ARI from the first to the third year of life, confirming the noted importance of younger age as a universal risk factor in ARI outcome. Lower respiratory infections, mainly pneumonia and bronchiolitis were more prevalent in both countries, while the chance of a child dying from ARI was higher in KBTH. Ghana urgently needs a comprehensive national ARI control programme based on the WHO case control programme guidelines with antibiotics permissible at all levels of the health service.