Scarce and limited epidemiological, clinical and microbiological data are available regarding pediatric respiratory tract infections in the Kingdom of Morocco, a middle-income country in Northwestern Africa. Data on antibiotic usage for such infections are also scarce. A good understanding of pre-admission and intra-hospital usage of antibiotics in children with respiratory infections linked with an adequate surveillance of the antibiotic susceptibility from circulating pathogens could help policy makers improve their recommendations on management of respiratory infections. We hereby present data on antibiotic usage prior and during admission and antibiotic susceptibility of major circulating respiratory pathogens in children under five years of age admitted to the Hôpital d'Enfants de Rabat, Morocco, with a diagnosis of clinical severe pneumonia (using World Health Organization (WHO) standardized case definitions) during a period of 14 months (November 2010-December 2011), as part of a larger hospital-based surveillance study designed to understand the etiology and epidemiology of severe pneumonia cases among children.
Keywords: Morocco; acute respiratory infection; antibiotics; children; risk factors.