Katherine L. O’Brien, Henry C. Baggett, W. Abdullah Brooks, Daniel R. Feikin et al.
BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among children younger than 5 years. In this study, we estimated causes of pneumonia in young African and Asian children, using novel analytical methods applied to clinical and microbiological findings. METHODS: We did a multi-site, international c...
Christine D. Palmer, Amy Rappaport, Matthew J. Davis, Meghan G. Hart et al.
Checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapies provide limited benefit to patients with tumors of low immune reactivity. T cell-inducing vaccines hold promise to exert long-lasting disease control in combination with CPI therapy. Safety, tolerability and recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) of an individualized, h...
Orin S. Levine, Katherine L. O’Brien, Maria Deloria Knoll, David R. Murdoch et al.
The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) project is a 7-country, standardized, comprehensive evaluation of the etiologic agents causing severe pneumonia in children from developing countries. During previous etiology studies, between one-quarter and one-third of patients failed to yi...
Henry C. Baggett, Nora L. Watson, Maria Deloria Knoll, W. Abdullah Brooks et al.
BACKGROUND.: Previous studies suggested an association between upper airway pneumococcal colonization density and pneumococcal pneumonia, but data in children are limited. Using data from the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study, we assessed this potential association. METHODS....
Daniel R. Feikin, Wei Fu, Daniel E. Park, Qiyuan Shi et al.
BACKGROUND.: The etiologic inference of identifying a pathogen in the upper respiratory tract (URT) of children with pneumonia is unclear. To determine if viral load could provide evidence of causality of pneumonia, we compared viral load in the URT of children with World Health Organization-defined...
Nicholas Fancourt, Maria Deloria Knoll, Henry C. Baggett, W. Abdullah Brooks et al.
BACKGROUND.: Chest radiographs (CXRs) are frequently used to assess pneumonia cases. Variations in CXR appearances between epidemiological settings and their correlation with clinical signs are not well documented. METHODS.: The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health project enrolled 4232 case...
Daniel E. Park, Henry C. Baggett, Stephen R. C. Howie, Qiyuan Shi et al.
BACKGROUND.: There is limited information on the association between colonization density of upper respiratory tract colonizers and pathogen-specific pneumonia. We assessed this association for Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pneumocystis jirovecii. METHODS....
Andrea N. DeLuca, Laura L. Hammitt, Julia Kim, Melissa M. Higdon et al.
BACKGROUND.: Induced sputum (IS) may provide diagnostic information about the etiology of pneumonia. The safety of this procedure across a heterogeneous population with severe pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries has not been described. METHODS.: IS specimens were obtained as part a 7-count...
David R. Murdoch, Susan C. Morpeth, Laura L. Hammitt, Amanda J. Driscoll et al.
BACKGROUND.: It is standard practice for laboratories to assess the cellular quality of expectorated sputum specimens to check that they originated from the lower respiratory tract. The presence of low numbers of squamous epithelial cells (SECs) and high numbers of polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells are ...
Breanna Barger-Kamate, Maria Deloria Knoll, E. Wangeci Kagucia, Christine Prosperi et al.
BACKGROUND: Few data exist describing pertussis epidemiology among infants and children in low- and middle-income countries to guide preventive strategies. METHODS: Children 1-59 months of age hospitalized with World Health Organization-defined severe or very severe pneumonia in 7 African and Asian ...
Donald M. Thea, Phil Seidenberg, Daniel E. Park, Lawrence Mwananyanda et al.
BACKGROUND.: Sputum examination can be useful in diagnosing the cause of pneumonia in adults but is less well established in children. We sought to assess the diagnostic utility of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of respiratory viruses and bacteria in induced sputum (IS) specimens from...
Katherine E. Gallagher, Maria Deloria Knoll, Chrissy Prosperi, Henry C. Baggett et al.
BACKGROUND: In 2015, pneumonia remained the leading cause of mortality in children aged 1-59 months. METHODS: Data from 1802 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative children aged 1-59 months enrolled in the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study with severe or very severe pne...
Jane Crawley, Christine Prosperi, Henry C. Baggett, W. Abdullah Brooks et al.
BACKGROUND.: Variable adherence to standardized case definitions, clinical procedures, specimen collection techniques, and laboratory methods has complicated the interpretation of previous multicenter pneumonia etiology studies. To circumvent these problems, a program of clinical standardization was...
Maria Deloria Knoll, Susan C. Morpeth, J. Anthony G. Scott, Nora L. Watson et al.
BACKGROUND.: Detection of pneumococcus by lytA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in blood had poor diagnostic accuracy for diagnosing pneumococcal pneumonia in children in 9 African and Asian sites. We assessed the value of blood lytA quantification in diagnosing pneumococcal pneumonia. METHODS.: The ...
Melissa M. Higdon, Laura L. Hammitt, Maria Deloria Knoll, Henry C. Baggett et al.
Many pneumonia etiology case-control studies exclude controls with respiratory illness from enrollment or analyses. Herein we argue that selecting controls regardless of respiratory symptoms provides the least biased estimates of pneumonia etiology. We review 3 reasons investigators may choose to ex...