Pneumonia and malaria in under-five children of southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract: An observational and experimental study was conducted to see the proportion of overlap between the clinical and laboratory diagnosis of pneumonia and malaria and the therapeutic effectiveness of cotrimoxazole. Children under five years who presented to the clinic with fever and/or cough or difficulty in breathing were enrolled in the study. Blood smears were done for all enrolled children while chest x-rays were obtained only for those children with parasitaemia or who met the clinical case definition for pneumonia. There were 736 children who met the clinical case definition of malaria, while 731 met the clinical case definition of pneumonia. Of these two groups, 456 (61.9%) of children with clinical malaria and 62.3% of those with clinical pneumonia represent the overlap of children who met both clinical definitions. Specific clinical definition did not differentiate pneumonia and malaria. A single treatment of both diseases by cotrimoxazole is showed to be as effective as a combination of treatment with chloroquine and procaine penicillin. Parasite clearance was better in the cotrimoxazole group than the chloroquine-penicillin group, however the cotrimoxazole group had a higher rate of recurdescences with two out of 41 patients smear positive at day 14. A significant proportion of overlap in the clinical and laboratory diagnosis of pneumonia and malaria is shown and that a three days cotrimoxazole therapy is equally effective in treating both diseases as a combination of chloroquine and procaine penicillin is. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 1997;11(1):43-50]