title: Guidelines for the management of community-acquired pneumonia in Saudi Arabia: a model for the Middle East region.
abstract: Worldwide, community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common respiratory tract infection and is now a growing public health concern in Saudi Arabia. In an effort to simplify treatment regimens to aid the practitioner, empirical treatment guidelines for CAP have evolved across the international medical community, reducing the number of antibiotics used and improving outcomes. Saudi Arabia and the surrounding region have no such consensus guidelines and this document aims to redress this lack. The potential impacts of developing and implementing CAP treatment guidelines in Saudi Arabia, which are new to the Kingdom, will be examined. Widespread adoption of these SACAP guidelines could lead to nationwide reductions of antibiotic resistance and improvement of clinical outcomes. Ultimately, Kingdomwide uniformity of treatment algorithms provides a foundation for both database generation and valuable outcomes of research in the future.
authors.affiliation: Adult Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Infection Prevention and Control Program, NGHA, King Fahad National Guard Hospital, P.O. Box 22490, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia. memish@ngha.med.sa
authors.forename: Ziad A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Memish
authors.forename: Atef M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Shibl
authors.forename: Qanta A A
authors.initials: QA
authors.lastname: Ahmed
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D012307:Risk Factors; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents