Community acquired pneumonia in children

Correspondence to: I J Haq iram.haq@newcastle.ac.uk #### What you need to know In 2015, community acquired pneumonia (CAP) accounted for 15% of deaths in children under 5 years old globally and 922 000 deaths globally in children of all ages.1 It is defined as a clinical diagnosis of pneumonia caused by a community acquired infection in a previously healthy child.2 Clinical assessment can be challenging; symptoms vary with age and can be non-specific in young children, and aetiology is often unknown at presentation. This article will provide an update on CAP management in otherwise healthy children outside the neonatal period and summarises recommendations from the British Thoracic Society guidelines for UK practice.2 Similar international guidelines, including the World Health Organisation and Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines, have some treatment variations, probably dependent on drug availability, cost, and antibiotic resistance patterns.34 Around 14.4 per 10 000 children aged over 5 years and 33.8 per 10 000 under 5 years are diagnosed with CAP annually in European hospitals.56 CAP is more common in the developing world, estimated at 0.28 episodes per child per year and accounting for 95% of all cases.7 Incidence data varies and may be explained by variation in diagnostic criteria. A bias exists towards hospital based studies, which potentially underestimates overall incidence. Children aged …