摘要：Acute lower respiratory infections, which broadlyinclude pneumonia and bronchiolitis, are still theleading cause of childhood mortality.ALRI contributedto 18% of all deaths in children younger than fiveyears of age in 2008 [1], and the main pathogens responsiblefor high mortality were Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilusinfluenzae and respiratory syncytial virus [2-4].Inaddition, meningitis was estimated to contribute up to200 000 deaths each year, and influenza anywhere between25 000 and 110 000 [1,5].It is widely acknowledged thata major portion of this mortality should be avoidable if universalcoverage of all known effective interventions couldbe achieved.However, some evaluations of the implementationof World Health Organization’s (WHO) IntegratedManagement of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy, whichpromotes improved access to a trained health provider whocan administer “standard case management”, have shownsomewhat disappointing results [6-8].
