Progress in researches on incidence, pathogen spectrum and disease burden of community-acquired pneumonia among under five years old children in China

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children, which is one of important causes of death in children under the age of five years, refers to healthy children suffering from infectious pneumonia out of hospitals. CAP leads to a heavy burden of disease in the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific Region. Nowadays, CAP-related pathogens present a new spectrum, but Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae are still the main pathogens. Clinical and epidemic features of CAP vary among different countries and regions. Aiming to provide evidences to prevention and control of CAP, the study reviews published literatures about researches on spectrum and drug-resistance of isolated CAP-related pathogens, clinical and epidemic characteristics, disease burden, and prevention and control of CAP.