Objectives. Diarrhea and pneumonia are the leading causes of under-5 childhood mortality. However, there is limited information on bacterial etiology of severe pneumonia in children with diarrhea. We analyzed bacterial pathogens from the blood of children under the age of 5 years. Methods. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we studied all children having severe pneumonia with or without diarrhea admitted to the icddr,b (International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh) who had their blood culture done during January 2014 to December 2014. Results. Among a total of 159 study children, 118 had diarrhea. There were 13 bacterial isolates, and predominant organisms were gram-negative bacteria (11/13, 85%). Children with diarrhea coexisting with severe pneumonia proportionately had higher bacteremia (12/141 [10.16%] vs 1/41 [2.43%]), but the difference was not statistically insignificant (P = .186). Conclusion. We recognized that the coexistence of diarrhea and severe pneumonia had proportionately higher bacteremia, especially gram-negative bacteria compared with those without diarrhea. The results emphasize the trend of bacterial etiology of pneumonia in children with diarrhea and may warrant revised antibiotics guideline for their management.
Keywords: bacteremia; diarrhea; pediatrics; pneumonia.