We are pleased to have reached the two-thirds recruitment milestone with more than 750 children admitted to hospital with severe or very severe pneumonia, now recruited into the PediCAP trial. The last couple of years have been particularly challenging for our trial staff and families with ill children. Enrolment into our trial dropped due to COVID-19 restrictions and the redeployment of hospital teams into COVID wards. Nevertheless, through determination and passion, our study teams and collaborators pushed on and this has enabled us to reach this important milestone and continue our research.

Pneumonia is one of the world’s leading causes of infectious death in children under the age of five and current WHO guidelines recommend one week of intravenous antibiotics for children admitted to hospital. PediCAP is focusing on the optimal choice of drug, dose and duration of antibiotic treatment for children admitted to hospital with severe and very severe community-acquired pneumonia and whether they can safely be stepped down to oral antibiotics early allowing them to continue their treatment at home.

PediCAP aims to determine whether it is possible to safely reduce overall exposure to antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, while improving the quality of life for children and their caregivers.