Sapporo Medical Journal

Abstract : Pneumonia remains a leading infectious cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Pneumonia is mainly caused by viruses, but current therapeutic regimen often consists of antibiotic due to the lack of etiologic diagnosis. Irrational antibiotic often leads to antimicrobial resistance and high expenditure of healthcare resources. The aim of this study was to characterize the clinical features and etiology of viral pneumonia in children. A cross-sectional study was conducted in children aged 1-60 months with pneumonia according to WHO 2013 criteria, at the Dr. Soetomo Hospital from January to April 2014. Identification of virus was carried out by multiplex PCR, using Luminex primer xTag ®RVP-FASTv2. Seventy-five children met the criteria of enrolment to this study. The most common observed symptoms were fever (86.7%), coryza (60.0%) and vomiting (46.7%). The most common clinical signs were rales (95.6%), fast breathing (88.9%) and flaring nostril (80.0%). In terms of the detected viruses, EnV-HRV had the highest detection rate (46.7%), followed by HBoV (17.8%), InfV (8.9%), RSV (8.9%), HMpV (6.7%), HPIV (6.7%), CoV (4.4%) and none for AdV. The disease was typically a single infection (57.8%), with no observed specific seasonal trend. Fever, coryza, vomiting, rales and fast breathing were the most common symptoms and signs of pneumonia observed in this study. The most common viruses identified in children with viral pneumonia were EnV-HRV and HBoV.