1. The current paper was a part of a multicentric
randomized controlled trial for oral amoxicillin administered at
hospital vs. home [1], published elsewhere. The children with
effusion or consolidation were excluded as they required special
care and hospitalization for longer durations, and were therefore
excluded.
2. The word ‘consolidation’ has been used to
refer end point consolidation which means a significant pathology
that means a dense or fluffy opacity that occupies a whole of the
lobe or entire lung that may or may not contain air- bronchograms.
The term ‘infiltrate’ was used to define non endpoint infiltrations
which include minor patchy infiltrates that are of no sufficient
magnitude to constitute primary endpoint consolidation [2,3].
3. The categorization of patients was based on
the place of administration of oral amoxicillin i.e. whether
it has been administered in a hospital setting or at home.
4. Serotyping would have helped definitely but it
was beyond the scope of this study as it was focused on treatment of
community-acquired pneumonia with oral amoxicillin, and was not
directed towards the etiology of the disease [1].
5. The patients were enrolled between 2009 to
2011. Hib vaccination was not a part of national immunization at
that time.
6. The pneumococcus isolates and their antibiotic
susceptibility has been shown in the manuscript [4].
References
1. Patel AB, Bang A, Singh M, Dhande L, Chelliah LR,
Malik A, et al. A randomized controlled trial of hospital versus
home based therapy with oral amoxicillin for severe pneumonia in
children aged 3 – 59 months: The IndiaCLEN Severe Pneumonia Oral Therapy
(ISPOT) Study. BMC Pediatrics. 2015;15:186.
2. Simbalista R, Araújo M, Nascimento Carvalho CM.
Outcome of children hospitalized with community acquired pneumonia
treated with aqueous penicillin G. Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2011;66:95-100.
3. Cherian T, Mulholland EK, Carlin JB, Ostensen H,
Amin R, de Campo M, et al. Standardized interpretation of
paediatric chest radiographs for the diagnosis of pneumonia in
epidemiological studies. Bull WHO. 2005;83:353-9.
4. Singh M, Agarwal A, Das RR, Jaiswal N, Ray P. Nasopharyngeal
carriage of organisms in children aged 3 to 59 months diagnosed with
severe community acquired pneumonia. Indian Pediatr. 2016;53:125-8.