Acute lower respiratory infections in hospitalised urban pre-school Nigerian children: a clinical overview

Abstract

One hundred and three hospitalised urban pre-school Nigerian children aged 2 weeks to 4 years with various acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI), were studied prospectively over a 9- month period (August 1985 - April 1986). Overlapping seasonal peaks, corresponding to the rainy/early harmattan months of August through November were most noticeable for the two major viral ALRI syndromes namely, bronchiolitis and croup. The overall M:F ratio was 1.1:1, but a corresponding ratio of 1.6:1 was recorded in the infants. The commonest ALRI symptoms were cough, breathlessness and fever while chest wall retraction, nasal flaring, tachypnoea and auscultatory crepitations were the most frequently recognised physical findings. Grunting respiration was recognised in 26 patients, majority of whom had pleural effusion and/or severe bronchopneumonia. Bronchopneumonia was the single commonest ALRI diagnosis, recorded alone or in combination with another lower respiratory syndrome, in 64 (61.2%) of the 103 cases. The croup:bronchiolitis: pneumonia ratio was 1:2.3:8.3. Nasopharyngitis was recorded in 42 (40.7%) of cases, and was frequently associated with the presumably viral ALRI syndromes of croup and bronchiolitis. Pleural effusion, frequently purulent, was the commonest respiratory complication, while heart failure and anaemia were the most frequently recognised associated conditions, found predominantly in patients with pneumonia and bronchiolitis. There was an overall ALRI case-fatality of 7.8%, representing 8 deaths, in 3 of whom measles was a co-morbid condition. All the 8 deaths had a final diagnosis of pneumonia with or without other ALRI syndromes/associated complications. While subjects with complicating pleural effusion recorded the longest mean duration of hospitalisation, those with bronchiolitis had the shortest duration of hospitalisation and no death. The epidemiologic, as well as the diagnostic and therapeutic implications of our observations are discussed.