{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]],"date-time":"2026-10-27T07:37:32Z","timestamp":1793086652685,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,23]],"date-time":"2024-08-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1724371200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":22,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["BMJ Open"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,6]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Understanding the epidemiological patterns of febrile infants can offer valuable insights for optimising management strategies and developing quality improvement initiatives, aiming to improve healthcare delivery in high-volume, low-resource emergency departments (EDs).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objectives<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To characterise the epidemiology of febrile infants presenting to the paediatric ED of a tertiary care hospital.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A retrospective chart review of medical records was performed for febrile infants \u22641 year old, at paediatric ED, Indus Hospital and Health Network (IHHN), Karachi, Pakistan (1 January 2020\u201331 December 2020).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>There were a total of 2311 patients in the study, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.4:1. The mean age of presentation was 4.9\u00b12.7 months. Cough (n=1002, 43.2%) was the most frequent presenting symptom. The most common provisional ED diagnosis in \u22641 month of age was sepsis (n=98, 51%), bronchopneumonia (n=138, 28.6%) in 1.1\u20133 and 3.1\u20136 months (n=176, 36.45%); and upper respiratory tract illness (n=206, 47.4%) in 6.1\u201312 months of age. Age was significantly associated with provisional ED diagnosis and outcomes (p&lt;0.001). Of 175 ED admissions (n=47, 26.8%), patients were discharged with a hospital diagnosis of bronchopneumonia and (n=27, 15.4) of sepsis. The infant mortality rate was 3\/1000 live births.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study is the first of its kind to explore the epidemiology of febrile infants in Pakistan, highlighting the burden and severity of respiratory illnesses and sepsis. It underscores the challenges of resource-limited settings, failing to meet the need for admission of febrile infants presenting to ED, IHHN. Moreover, it has highlighted the necessity to optimise the existing triage systems to effectively allocate resources and manage high patient volumes in low-resource EDs.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2023-076611","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,24]],"date-time":"2024-08-24T04:50:24Z","timestamp":1724475024000},"page":"e076611","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Epidemiological trends of febrile infants presenting to the Paediatric Emergency department, in a tertiary care hospital, Karachi, Pakistan: a retrospective review"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-0797-2008","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Quratulain","family":"Bushra","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Paediatric Emergency, Indus Hospital and Health Network, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sara","family":"Fatima","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Paediatric Emergency, Indus Hospital and Health Network, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ammara","family":"Hameed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bahria University Medical and Dental College, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sama","family":"Mukhtar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Emergency Medicine, Indus Hospital & Health Network, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025121605114190000_14.8.e076611.1","unstructured":"The world has reached peak number of children. 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