CPAP Improving Mortality for Pneumonia in African Children Trial

Pneumonia mortality rates in African countries like Malawi are high and increased further in children -exposed or infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as well as those that are severely malnourished or severely hypoxemic. Treatment innovations are needed. Bubble continuous positive airway pressure (bCPAP) improves oxygenation and ventilation and is a simple, relatively inexpensive adaptation of conventional continuous positive airway pressure potentially suitable for low-resource settings. bCPAP has been demonstrated to improve outcomes in neonates less than 1 month of age. Recently, a limited number of hospitals are using bCPAP to escalate pneumonia care for older African children failing standard treatment with antibiotics and oxygen. Supportive evidence for this approach is observational only. Quality randomized studies comparing bCPAP versus a standard-of-care control group that includes low-flow oxygen therapy and using a primary endpoint of mortality are not available in low-resource settings including high prevalence HIV countries like Malawi. Demonstrating a mortality benefit with bCPAP is needed to support further investment and scale up of bCPAP in the care of older Malawian children 1-59 months of age with World Health Organization (WHO) severe pneumonia complicated by HIV and/or malnutrition or severe hypoxemia. With the full support of the Malawi Ministry of Health and in collaboration with external experts from Lilongwe Medical Relief Trust and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center investigators plan to address this critical evidence gap by conducting a randomized controlled study determining bCPAP outcomes, compared to the currently recommended standard of care endorsed by the WHO and Malawi national pneumonia guidelines, in hospitalized Malawian children with WHO-defined severe pneumonia complicated by a co-morbidity ((1) HIV-infection, (2) HIV-exposure without infection, (3) severely malnourished) or WHO pneumonia with severe hy