Epidemiology of Community Acquired Pneumonia in Ethiopia: a Review Article

Abstract

Community acquired pneumonia is among the major reasons of hospital visit and mortality in Ethiopia, especially in children younger than five and the implication of this infection on health and economy of the country is concerning. Against this back ground, the objective of this work was to systematically review issues related to the epidemiology of community acquired pneumonia in Ethiopia. A review and identification of literatures published between 2000 and 2015 was carried out. Search engines like Google, Google scholar and Pub Med were used to access relevant materials online. Accordingly, 47 articles, reports and other documents identified of which 39 (34 articles and 5 reports) were included in the review. The literatures addressed various issues/problems related to the epidemiology of community acquired pneumonia. This infection continued to be one of the leading causes of hospital admissions and death in Ethiopia, especially in children less than five years of age. Services being delivered at the facility and community level to overcome the challenges of this infection are showing encouraging results and hence need to be sustained.