Prevalence of Acute Respiratory Tract Infection (ARI) in Paediatric Patient Attending National Hospital Abuja, Nigeria

This study, on the prevalence of Acute Respiratory Tract Infection(ARI), spans the period of six months, from 1 st January to the 30 th of June, 2017, at the National Hospital Abuja, located at the central business district of the Federal Capital City of Nigeria. The data were retrospectively collected from patient’s folders and attendance register from the medical records department at the general Paediatric Outpatient department, National Hospital over the period of six months, 713(59.3%) males and 490(40.7%) females. Over the six-month period, out of 1203. The result showed that among paediatric unisex patients seen, 279 were diagnosed with ARI which is 23.19%. The overall ARI mean, µ, was 25; Standard Deviation, SD, was 12 .41 while the Standard Error, S.E. was, 6.2 with t 4.7 tab ≥ t cal. 4.0 at (P≥0.05). From the study carried out, there were diseases found to be casually and confoundly associated with ARI which includes sepsis, malaria, dehydration, diarrhoeal disease, febrile convulsion, pneumonia, sickle cell anaemia, and meningitis. Our observation showed that ARI among children between the ages 0-5 years was not significantly high (P≥0.05) in agreement with popular opinion from literature search [1, 18]. Despite the devastating and fatal nature of ARI, as it starves the body of oxygen-it is suggested that the non -significance could be favoured due to the clemency of the environment/ weather which these patients were exposed to, when this research was conducted.