"Community-Acquired Pneumonia Requiring Hospitalization among U.S. Children" published on February on NEJM.

Summary of the article

In this article the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC) study is presented; this was a prospective, multicenter, population-based, active-surveillance study. Systematic enrollment and comprehensive diagnostic methods were used to determine the incidence and microbiologic causes of community acquired pneumonia requiring hospitalization among U.S. children.

The study was an active population-based surveillance for community-acquired pneumonia requiring hospitalization among children younger than 18 years of age in three hospitals in Memphis, Nashville, and Salt Lake City. Children with recent hospitalization or severe immunosuppression were excluded. Blood and respiratory specimens were systematically collected for pathogen detection with the use of multiple methods. Chest radiographs were reviewed independently by study radiologists.

From January 2010 through June 2012, 2638 of 3803 eligible children (69%) were enrolled, 2358 of whom (89%) had radiographic evidence of pneumonia.

The burden of pneumonia-related hospitalization was highest among children younger than 5 years of age. Diagnostic testing for multiple pathogens revealed a pathogen in 81% of the children with pneumonia; a viral pathogen was detected in 73% of the children, and a bacterial pathogen in 15%.

Go to the article.

Authors: Seema Jain, Derek J. Williams, Sandra R. Arnold, Krow Ampofo, Anna M. Bramley, Carrie Reed, Chris Stockmann, Evan J. Anderson, Carlos G. Grijalva, Wesley H. Self, Yuwei Zhu, Anami Patel, Weston Hymas, James D. Chappell, Robert A. Kaufman, J. Herman Kan, David Dansie, Noel Lenny, David R. Hillyard, Lia M. Haynes, Min Levine, Stephen Lindstrom, Jonas M. Winchell, Jacqueline M. Katz, Dean Erdman, Eileen Schneider, Lauri A. Hicks, Richard G. Wunderink, Kathryn M. Edwards, Andrew T. Pavia, Jonathan A. McCullers, and Lyn Finelli, for the CDC EPIC Study Team