Community-acquired pneumonia in children aged 2 months to 5 years: application of the WHO guidelines in a developed country setting (Switzerland)

In developed countries, the high morbidity associated with respiratory tract infections and the difficulty to discriminate viral from bacterial aetiology support the use of guidelines based on the observation of clinical signs, such as the World Health Organisation algorithm. Tachypnoea is the cardinal clinical sign on which early diagnosis of pneumonia is to be based in order to allow prompt initiation of appropriate antibiotic therapy.