Possible Etiological Agents of Pneumonia in Egyptian Infants and Children

Community acquired pneumonia is more prevalent and severe in developing countries than in developed one. In Egypt, pneumonia accounts for 11% of deaths in children under 5 years old. In developing countries more than 150 million new cases occur in children under 5 years annually. Our objective was to determine and evaluate the possible etiological agents of pneumonia in Egyptian infants and children. This cross sectional study was conducted on 50 infants and children from 1 month old up to 5 years old who were admitted in El Galaa Teaching Hospital with clinical and/or radiological diagnosis of pneumonia. Complete Blood Count (CBC), quantitative C-Reactive Protein (CRP), blood culture, sputum culture and X-ray chest were done for all patients. We found that infants less than 1 year old were the most affected by pneumonia (70%) in our study group. Bacterial pneumonia and mixed (bacterial and viral due to respiratory syncytial virus) infections constituted a large proportion among identifiable causes of infections (36% and 12% of patients, respectively) 16 patients (32%) had positive sputum culture and only 9 patients (18%) had positive blood culture results. The most common isolated organism from sputum culture was Haemophilus influenza (16%) while the most common organism from blood culture was Staphylococcus aureus (6%) and only one patient (2%) had mixed growth. We conclude that pneumonia is a common cause of morbidity and mortality among Egyptian infants and children less than 5 years old, especially in the first year of life. Patients with bacterial pneumonia had more severe form of pneumonia. CBC and blood culture results can't be considered dependable tools in identification of etiological causes of pneumonia in infants and children.