Acute respiratory tract infection (ARI) is a clinical condition which causes high morbidity and mortality, especially in infants and young children. Pneumonia is a common complication of respiratory tract infection. Atypical pneumonia, which is commonly caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Legi-onella pneumophila, is difficult to be detected because the causal bacteria cannot be diagnosed by routine culture method and presenting with non-specific clinical symptoms. This study aimed to diagnose the atypical pneumonia infection in children presenting with ARI attending Yangon Children’s Hospital during 2014-15 by using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (M-PCR). The bacterial DNA was extracted from nasopharyngeal swab samples by using Qiagen DNA minikit and detected by M-PCR. Of 245 patients with ARI, 140(57%) were males and 105(43%) were females. Eleven samples (4.4%) were positive for atypical pneumonia infection, among which 4(1.6%) were Mycoplasma pneumoniae,5(2%) were Chlamydophila pneumoniae and 2(0.8%) were Legionella pneumophila. The atypical pneumonia cases were mostly seen among the age of 1 to 5 years and sex distribution was nearly equal. The infected cases were detected from pneumonia (36.4%), severe pneumonia (27.3%), viral-induced wheeze (18.2%), severe bronchiolitis (9.1%) and bronchiolitis (9.1%). This study highlights the role of atypical pneumonia infection in ARI cases among children.
Molecular Diagnosis of Atypical Pneumonia Infection in Children Presenting with Acute Respiratory Tract Infection Attending Yangon Children’s Hospital
