Abstract:
This study was designed to identify the causative bacteria in childhood ARI, focusing
mainly on acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI) and to find out any clinical
indicators of becterial infection of the lower tract.The frequency of bacterial infections in
ALRI was found to be 58.3 per cent in inpatients and 60.4 per cent in outpatients. The major
pathogenic organism identified in the study was branhamella but has now been recognised
as a pathogen (4,45). The other two major pathogens were streotococcus pneumoniae and
haemophilus influenzae which have been reported before in many studies (20,38,93).
Amoxycillin was found to be the drug of choice to treat these infections.