Determining the Agreement Between an Automated Respiratory Rate Counter and a Reference Standard for Detecting Symptoms of Pneumonia in Children: Protocol for a Cross-Sectional Study in Ethiopia.

Background: Acute respiratory infections (ARIs), primarily pneumonia, are the leading infectious cause of under-5 mortality worldwide. Manually counting respiratory rate (RR) for 60 seconds using an ARI timer is commonly practiced by community health workers to detect fast breathing, an important sign of pneumonia. However, correctly counting breaths manually and classifying the RR is challenging, often leading to inappropriate treatment.

Diarrhea management in children under five in sub-Saharan Africa: does the source of care matter? A Countdown analysis.

Background: Diarrhea remains a high burden disease, responsible for nine percent of deaths in children under five globally. We analyzed diarrhea management practices in young children and their association with the source of care.

Methods: We used Demographic and Health Survey data from 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa with high burdens of childhood diarrhea.

Antimicrobial drug resistance among clinically relevant bacterial isolates in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.

Background: Little is known about the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) amongst bacterial pathogens in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA), despite calls for continent-wide surveillance to inform empirical treatment guidelines.

Methods: We searched PubMed and additional databases for susceptibility data of key pathogens for surveillance, published between 1990 and 2013. Extracted data were standardized to a prevalence of resistance in populations of isolates and reported by clinical syndrome, microorganism, relevant antimicrobial drugs and region.