On February 24th, 2022, the PediCAP consortium met for a general assembly meeting. The general assembly meeting is the main meeting in which all consortium members and work package leaders within the PediCAP project meet to share progress, address issues and make key decisions on the future and progression of the project. In the wake of COVID-19, this general assembly meeting was held online.
Although COVID-19 initially forced some of our activities to a halt, the project is steadily progressing. Pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide – accounting for 15% of all deaths of children under 5 years old, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Children affected by pneumonia often receive antibiotics intravenously for an extended period, resulting in extended hospital stays increasing the risk of children picking up other infections in the healthcare setting (called nosocomial infections). The longer the children are in hospital the longer they will have to take antibiotics, increasing their risk of becoming resistant to them. This would mean that antibiotics won’t work as well for infections in the future.
PediCAP, funded by the EDCPT, aims to address this issue by optimizing antibiotic treatment for children with pneumonia and ensure that healthcare providers in Sub Saharan Africa are able to provide the right drug, in the right duration, through the right route and in the right dose.
