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- Title
Clinical response to antibiotic therapy for community-acquired pneumonia.
- Authors
Juvén, Taina; Mertsola, Jussi; Leinonen, Maija; Waris, Matti; Ruuskanen, Olli; Juvén, Taina
- Abstract
<bold>Unlabelled: </bold>Childhood community-acquired pneumonia is a common and potentially serious problem worldwide. Unless the patient has bacteraemia or pleural empyema, aetiological diagnostics are limited and antibiotic treatment is empirical. Published data on expected response to therapy are scarce. To determine the clinical response to antibiotic treatment in a developed country in otherwise healthy children with community-acquired pneumonia, we conducted a prospective study of 153 hospitalised children with pneumonia. The role of 17 microbes as potential causative agents was evaluated. The duration of fever (>37.5 degrees C) and hospitalisation were studied as objective measures of recovery. A potential aetiology was found in 83% of 153 patients: 29% of the patients had sole viral and 26% sole bacterial and 29% mixed viral-bacterial infections. The median duration of fever after the onset of antibiotic treatment (mainly penicillin G) was 14 h and the median duration of hospitalisation was 48 h. Patients with mixed viral-bacterial infection became afebrile more slowly than those with either sole viral or sole bacterial infections.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>the findings indicate that in a developed country, children with pneumonia make a rapid, uneventful recovery needing only a short hospital stay. Expensive and time-consuming microbiological investigations are not required once bacterial sepsis has been excluded.
- Subjects
PNEUMONIA in children; ANTIBIOTICS; STREPTOCOCCUS pneumoniae; MYCOPLASMA pneumoniae; HAEMOPHILUS diseases; LENGTH of stay in hospitals; HOSPITAL care of children; LONGITUDINAL method; NONPARAMETRIC statistics; PNEUMONIA; VIRAL pneumonia; COMMUNITY-acquired infections; TREATMENT effectiveness; RESPIRATORY syncytial virus infections
- Publication
European Journal of Pediatrics, 2004, Vol 163, Issue 3, p140
- ISSN
0340-6199
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s00431-003-1397-2