[Pneumonia as a cause of death in children (author's transl)].
The yearly death-rate from pneumonia in children aged one month to 15 years has fallen in Schleswig-Holstein from 1.8 (1954-1958) to 0.6 per ten thousand (1969-1973). At the same time, total death-rate in the same age group has fallen from 14.5 to 9.3 per ten thousand children. The proportion of pneumonia in the total death-rate was 5.3% in 1971-1973, 1.6% in the first month of life and, after the sixteenth year, 2.3%. Pneumonia was in fourth place (after accident, malformation and neoplasm) as a cause of death in those more than one month old. The death-rate due to pneumonia had not fallen between 1954 and 1973, varying between 10% and 12%. While death-rate of "primary" pneumonia (without other underlying disease) had fallen from 5.7% (1954-1958) to 1.1% (1969-1973), the death-rate of "secondary" pneumonia rose from 16.8% to 21.4% during the same period. The total number of children aged between two months and 15 years treated for pneumonia fell by two thirds from 1954-1973 (1245 to 406). The incidence of "primary" pneumonia during the same period fell to about a quarter, that of "secondary" pneumonia to one half. The unsatisfactory result in the treatment of "secondary" pneumonia is probably due to the underlying primary disease or a weakening of defence mechanisms by treatment or the occurrence of unusual causative organisms (pneumocystis carinii, tubercle bacilli, Candida, Aspergillus), demonstrated only after death.
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001230:Aspergillus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002175:Candida / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005860:Germany, West; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008172:Lung Diseases, Fungal / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011010:Pneumocystis; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000401:mortality*
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
Pneumonie als Todesursache bei Kindern