Pathogens Causing Respiratory Tract Infections in Children Less Than 5 Years of Age in Senegal

Knobbe, Rebecca B; Diallo, Abdallah; Fall, Amary; Gueye, Aida D; Dieng, Assane; van Immerzeel, Tabitha D; Ba, Abou; Diop, Amadou; Diop, Abdoulaye; Niang, Mbayame; Boye, Cheikh SB

There are also limitations to be mentioned. We could not properly adjust for some factors such as social status due to few data on these subjects. Furthermore, selection bias could have occurred, because no matching was done. The average age of controls is lower than the average age of children with a respiratory infection, probably due to the young age of children enrolled in vaccination programmes. However, we did not discern significant heterogeneity regarding pathogens in different age groups (except for the mentioned differences in prevalence of RSV ) or living areas. Another limitation is the use of only throat swabs. The nasopharyngeal swab is found to be superior in detecting influenza virus, S pneumoniae, and Moraxella species, but oropharyngeal swabs are superior for the detection of M pneumoniae and H influenzae. [47] [48] [49] [50] It is preferable to use both techniques, but limited resources inhibited that. There was a lack of a gold standard such as chest X-ray for pneumonia. By taking a clinical definition of ARTI, there is possible overlap with other feverish diseases such as malaria and gastrointestinal illnesses. Other limitations are the short duration of the study and a lack of follow-up data of patients due to nonresponse to phone calls. We might have missed data on severity of illness and hospitalizations.