ArticleThe Pediatric infectious disease journal2021
The Etiology of Pneumonia in Zambian Children: Findings From the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) Study.
Article in The Pediatric infectious disease journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Aetiology of childhood pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries in the era of vaccination: a systematic review.Journal of global health · 2022Pooled it
- Predictors of Length of Hospital Stay Among Under-Five Children with Clinical Pneumonia at a Rural Tertiary Hospital Setting in South Africa.Pediatric reports · 2026Article
- A longitudinal study of antibody responses to endemic HCoV and novel SARS-CoV-2 among mother-child pairs in Zambia.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Pulmonary Immunocompromise in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Disease.Clinics in chest medicine · 2025Review
- Pneumococcal colonization and coinfecting respiratory viruses in children under 5 years in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a prospective case-control study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Infectious Disease Management in Pediatric Emergency Departments in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of Diagnostic Tools, Treatment Protocols, and Preventive Measures.Global pediatric health · 2024Review
- Burden of respiratory syncytial virus diseases among under 5 children in Sub-Saharan Africa:Heliyon · 2023Article
- Viral etiologies of lower respiratory tract infections in children < 5 years of age in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a prospective case-control study.Virology journal · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChildhood pneumonia in developing countries is the foremost cause of morbidity and death. Fresh information on etiology is needed, considering the changing epidemiology of pneumonia in the setting of greater availability of effective vaccines, changing antibiotic use and improved access to care. We report here the Zambia site results of the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health study on the etiology of pneumonia among HIV-uninfected children in Lusaka, Zambia.
methodsWe conducted a case-control study of HIV-uninfected children age 1-59 months admitted with World Health Organization-defined severe or very severe pneumonia to a large tertiary care hospital in Lusaka. History, physical examination, chest radiographs (CXRs), blood cultures and nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs were obtained and tested by polymerase chain reaction and routine microbiology for the presence of 30 bacteria and viruses. From age and seasonally matched controls, we tested blood and nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal samples. We used the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health integrated analysis to determine the individual and population etiologic fraction for individual pathogens as the cause of pneumonia.
resultsAmong the 514 HIV-uninfected case children, 208 (40.5%) had abnormal CXRs (61 of 514 children were missing CXR), 8 (3.8%) of which had positive blood cultures. The overall mortality was 16.0% (82 deaths). The etiologic fraction was highest for respiratory syncytial virus [26.1%, 95% credible interval (CrI): 17.0-37.7], Mycobacterium tuberculosis (12.8%, 95% CrI: 4.3-25.3) and human metapneumovirus (12.8%, CrI: 6.1-21.8).
conclusionsChildhood pneumonia in Zambia among HIV-uninfected children is most frequently caused by respiratory syncytial virus, M. tuberculosis and human metapneumovirus, and the mortality remains high.
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