Long hospital stays and severe infections in children are linked to a handful of factors, including hospitalization during the rainy season and malnutrition, according to research published March 20 in BMC Infectious Diseases.
Viral acute respiratory infections are major causes of morbidity and mortality, especially among young children, but contributing factors are not well understood, the study's authors wrote. Thus, the researchers set out to identify factors associated with severe acute respiratory infections and prolonged hospital stays among children 5 years and younger.
They analyzed more than 1,100 severe pediatric infections in Burkina Faso, a country in West Africa, reported between October 2016 and April 2019.
The most severe cases were linked to a lack of antibiotics, patients younger than 3 months old, those coinfected with Klebsiella pneumoniae and children living in urban areas. Longer hospitalizations, or stays exceeding seven days, were tied to malnutrition, stays during the rainy season and COVID-19 cases.
Based on the results, the researchers recommend healthcare workers "pay more attention to early diagnosis and management of comorbidities," such as malnutrition or infections in their youngest patients.