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Risk of bacteremia in young children with pneumonia treated as outpatients

Samir S Shah1, Elizabeth R Alpern, Lisa Zwerling

  • 1Divisions of General Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases, and Emergency Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. shahs@email.chop.edu

Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
|April 16, 2003
PubMed

Insights

Children with pneumonia treated as outpatients have a low risk of bacteremia. The pneumococcal conjugate vaccine may further reduce the incidence of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia in this age group.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Vaccinology

Background:

  • Blood cultures are standard for evaluating pediatric pneumonia.
  • Limited data exist on bacteremia risk post-Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine introduction.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the risk of bacteremia in young children diagnosed with pneumonia and treated as outpatients.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective cohort study of 580 children (2-24 months) with pneumonia discharged from a tertiary care ED.
  • Blood cultures were analyzed between February 1993 and May 1996.

Main Results:

  • Bacteremia prevalence was 1.6%, with Streptococcus pneumoniae identified in all 9 cases.
  • Six of 8 identified S. pneumoniae serotypes were covered by the heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
  • Contamination rate was 1.9%; pathogen detection time was significantly shorter than contamination.

Conclusions:

  • Outpatient pediatric pneumonia patients (2-24 months) have a low risk of bacteremia.
  • Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine use is expected to further decrease S. pneumoniae bacteremia incidence.
Abstract

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