Etiology and clinical characteristics of pediatric acute fever among hospitalized children in an endemic malaria transmission area of Cameroon in Central Africa.

Autor: Penda CI; Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.; Pédiatric Unit, Douala Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon.; Pédiatric Unit, Douala General Hospital, Douala, Cameroon., Épée Eboumbou P; Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.; Pédiatric Unit, Bonassama District Hospital, Douala, Cameroon., Ngondi G; Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.; Biology Lab, Douala Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon., Hzounda Fokou JB; Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon., Pfoum CV; Pédiatric Unit, Douala Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon., Mbono Betoko R; Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.; Pédiatric Unit, Douala Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon., Eposse C; Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.; Pédiatric Unit, Douala Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon., Endale LM; Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.; Center for Respiratory Diseases, Douala Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon., Same Bebey F; Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.; Internal Medicine Department, Douala Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon., Eboumbou Moukoko CE; Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.; Malaria Research Unit, Centre Pasteur Cameroon, Yaoundé, Cameroon.; Laboratory of Parasitology, Mycology and Virology, Postgraduate Training Unit for Health Sciences, Postgraduate School for Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2023 Jan 24; Vol. 18 (1), pp. e0278407. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jan 24 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278407
Abstrakt: Acute fever in the majority of children in resource-limited countries is attributable to malaria and often treated without laboratory evidence. The aim of the study was to characterize acute pediatric infectious fevers (APIF) in the pediatric department of the Douala Laquintinie Hospital. A cross-sectional study was conducted among children aged 2 months to 15 years who were admitted with an acute fever (anal temperature ≥ 37.5°C less than 5 days in infants and 7 days in adolescents). 200 children were included and followed up during their hospitalization. The mean age was 3.7 (IQ25-75: 1-4.6) years. More than 3 out of 5 patients (62.5%) came from another health facility and anemia accounted for 29% of the reasons for consultation associated with fever. The main symptoms were vomiting (28%), cough (26%), convulsions (21%) and diarrhea (20%). Skin-mucosal pallor (43.0%) and hepatosplenomegaly (26.0%) were the most common physical signs encountered. Among febrile children, 116/200 (58%) were infected with at least 1 pathogen, and 1/200 (0.5%) had a fever of unknown etiology. Malaria (53% vs 80.5% presumptive) associated with anemia (95.3% of cases) was the most common pathology associated with APIF, followed by pneumonia (19.5%), meningitis (11.5%) and urinary tract infections (10% vs 54.5% presumptive). Malaria was over-diagnosed on admission and over-treated as well as urinary tract infection. A better understanding of common pathogens carriage, a better capacity for improved diagnosis and a better applied clinical algorithm for febrile illnesses in children are needed.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 Penda et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:
Nepřihlášeným uživatelům se plný text nezobrazuje