Revised WHO classification and treatment of childhood pneumonia at health facilities

Overview

The revised guidelines present two major changes to existing guidelines: (A) there are now just 2 categories of pneumonia instead of 3 (“pneumonia” which is treated at home with oral amoxicillin and “severe pneumonia” which requires injectable antibiotics) and (B) oral amoxicillin replaces oral cotrimoxazole as first line treatment, preferably in 250mg dispersible tablet form, twice daily for five days which can be reduced to three days in low HIV settings.

The purpose of this document is to provide a summary of WHO-approved recommendations,1,2 and the evidence supporting them, and to assist national child health programmes in revising their guidelines to conform to the new recommendations.