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Background Understanding the epidemiological patterns of febrile infants can offer valuable insights for optimising management strategies and developing quality improvement initiatives, aiming to improve healthcare delivery in high-volume, low-resource emergency departments (EDs).Objectives To characterise the epidemiology of febrile infants presenting to the paediatric ED of a tertiary care hospital.Methods A retrospective chart review of medical records was performed for febrile infants ≤1 year old, at paediatric ED, Indus Hospital and Health Network (IHHN), Karachi, Pakistan (1 January 2020–31 December 2020).Results There were a total of 2311 patients in the study, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.4:1. The mean age of presentation was 4.9±2.7 months. Cough (n=1002, 43.2%) was the most frequent presenting symptom. The most common provisional ED diagnosis in ≤1 month of age was sepsis (n=98, 51%), bronchopneumonia (n=138, 28.6%) in 1.1–3 and 3.1–6 months (n=176, 36.45%); and upper respiratory tract illness (n=206, 47.4%) in 6.1–12 months of age. Age was significantly associated with provisional ED diagnosis and outcomes (p |
