Practice Recommendations for Management of Community Acquired Pneumonia in Children

Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common condition encountered in both ambulatory and hospital settings in Hong Kong. Two sets of evidence based international guidelines on management of CAP, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the British Thoracic Society guidelines, are available, but the local epidemiology, the public health infrastructure, vaccination program, social and economic background are all different from Hong Kong. Therefore not all of the recommendations are relevant to Hong Kong practice. The 2015 Hong Kong paediatric CAP guidance drafted by the CAP guideline development group aims at developing a set of local guidance with reference to international recommendations (including American and British guideline), based on the current available local data (including Streptococcus pneumoniae and Macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae) and consensus of the panel. Immunocompotent paediatric patients of age range beyond 3 months are the main focused population of the current set of guidance, in both in-patient and out-patient setting.