Islam Sufia, Nasrin Nishat, Tithi Nigar Sultana, Lehmann Christian, Chisti Mohammod Jobayer
Department of Pharmacy, East West University, 1212 Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 1X5, Canada.
Front Biosci (Landmark Ed). 2021 Oct 30;26(10):717-722. doi: 10.52586/4982.
: Pneumonia and diarrhoea are amongst the most common causes for hospital admission for children in low- and middle-income countries such as Bangladesh. Undernourished children often have more severe infections and a higher morbidity and mortality. : The objective of this study was to determine the clinical features and outcomes of pneumonia in severely malnourished children with and without diarrhoea. : A retrospective chart analysis was carried out on children under 5 years of age who were admitted in intensive care unit of the Dhaka hospital of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). A total of 245 severe acute malnourished children with pneumonia and diarrhoea (PD group) were compared with 89 children with pneumonia only (PO group). : A significantly higher number of children from the PD group had some/severe dehydration (16.3% vs. 1.1%; < 0.005) when compared with children from the PO group. The PD group showed less cough (83.3% vs. 100%; < 0.001), lower chest wall indrawing (40.4% vs. 60.7%; = 0.001), and crackles (62.4% vs. 87.6%; < 0.001) compared to the PO group at the time of admission. : Early diagnosis and treatment of some/severe dehydration in addition to WHO recommended other routine treatment of diarrhoea, pneumonia and severe acute malnutrition in children may help to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality especially in low- and middle-income countries.
