SUMMARYSETTING: Greater Banjul and Upper River Regions, The Gambia.OBJECTIVE: To investigate tractable social, environmental and nutritional risk factors for childhood pneumonia.DESIGN: A case-control study examining the association of crowding, household air pollution (HAP) and nutritional factors with pneumonia was undertaken in children aged 2–59 months: 458 children with severe pneumonia, defined according to the modified WHO criteria, were compared with 322 children with non-severe pneumonia, and these groups were compared to 801 neighbourhood controls. Controls were matched by age, sex, area and season.RESULTS: Strong evidence was found of an association between bed-sharing with someone with a cough and severe pneumonia (adjusted OR [aOR] 5.1, 95%CI 3.2–8.2, P < 0.001) and non-severe pneumonia (aOR 7.3, 95%CI 4.1–13.1, P < 0.001), with 18% of severe cases estimated to be attributable to this risk factor. Malnutrition and pneumonia had clear evidence of association, which was strongest between severe malnutrition and severe pneumonia (aOR 8.7, 95%CI 4.2–17.8, P < 0.001). No association was found between pneumonia and individual carbon monoxide exposure as a measure of HAP.CONCLUSION: Bed-sharing with someone with a cough is an important risk factor for severe pneumonia, and potentially tractable to intervention, while malnutrition remains an important tractable determinant.

Pneumonia remains the leading cause of death in young children worldwide. Global pneumonia control depends on a good understanding of the aetiology of pneumonia. Percutaneous transthoracic aspiration culture is much more sensitive than blood culture in identifying the aetiological agents of pneumonia. However, the procedure is not widely practised because of lack of familiarity with it and concerns about potential adverse events. We review the diagnostic usefulness and safety of this procedure over 25 years of its use in research and routine practice at the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), The Gambia, and give a detailed description of the procedure itself. Published materials were identified from the MRC's publication database and systematic searches using the PubMed/Medline and Google search engines. Data from a current pneumonia aetiology study in the unit are included together with clinical experience of staff practising at the unit over the period covered in this review. A minimum of 500 lung aspirates were performed over the period of review. Lung aspiration produces a greater yield of diagnostic bacterial isolates than blood culture. It is especially valuable clinically when pathogens not covered by standard empirical antibiotic treatment, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus, are identified. There have been no deaths following the procedure in our setting and a low rate of other complications, all transient. Lung aspiration is currently the most sensitive method for diagnosing pneumonia in children. With appropriate training and precautions it can be safely used for routine diagnosis in suitable referral hospitals.

Childhood pneumonia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among underfives particularly in the resource-constraint part of the world. A high proportion of these deaths are due to lack of oxygen, thereby making oxygen administration a life-saving adjunctive when indicated. However, many primary health centres that manage most of the cases often lack the adequate manpower and facilities to decide which patient should be on oxygen therapy. Therefore, this study aimed to determine factors that predict hypoxaemia at presentation in children with severe pneumonia. Four hundred and twenty children aged from 2 to 59 months (40% infants) with severe pneumonia admitted to a health centre in rural Gambia were assessed at presentation. Eighty-one of them (19.30%) had hypoxaemia (oxygen saturation < 90%). Children aged 2–11 months, with grunting respiration, cyanosis, and head nodding, and those with cardiomegaly on chest radiograph were at higher risk of hypoxaemia (P < 0.05). Grunting respiration (OR = 5.210, 95% CI 2.287–7.482) and cyanosis (OR = 83.200, 95% CI 5.248–355.111) were independent predictors of hypoxaemia in childhood pneumonia. We conclude that children that grunt and are centrally cyanosed should be preferentially commenced on oxygen therapy even when there is no facility to confirm hypoxaemia.

Pneumonia is a major killer of children worldwide. It is responsible for 19% of under-tlve-year-old mortality, of which 70% occurs in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. A substantial proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia is caused by failure to recognise factors at presentation that affect prognosis. The present study was aimed to assess for factors at presentation that determine mortality among children with WHO ARl defined severe pneumonia. This was a prospective observational study of consecutive children aged 2 to 59 months admitted with severe pneumonia at a major health centre in rural Gambia to determine the risk factors for mortality using logistic regression analysis. Four hundred and twenty (27.6%) out of the 1517 underfive admissions during the study period fulftlled the criteria of severe pneumonia using the WHO ARl criteria. Fifteen of the 420 cases died giving case fatality of 36 per 1000 admissions, with pneumonia accounting for 21.4% of all 70 deaths during the period. Although age ranges 12-23 months and 36-47 months, overcrowding, hypothermia at presentation, oedematous PEM, severe wasting, grunting respiration, convulsion, somnolence and hypoxaemia were signiftcantly associated with mortality (/> < 0.05); only convulsions ( OR = 16.64, 95% CI 1.028-1.033) and severe wasting (OR = 5.05, 95% Cl 1.459-20.484,) were independent determinants of mortality. We conclude that children with severe pneumonia who in addition have severe wasting and convulsion are at increased risks of dying and should be managed in better equipped secondary or tertiary health facilities.