A three-month old boy was admitted to the Dhaka Hospital of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal
Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), Dhaka, Bangladesh, with the problems of acute watery diarrhoea
with some dehydration and suspected dyseletrolytaemia, severe malnutrition, and reduced activity. Occult
pneumonia was added to the problem list after demonstration of radiologic consolidation in right upper
lung, despite the lack of clinical signs, both on admission and after correction of dehydration. The problem
list was further expanded to include bacteraemia due to
Staphylococcus aureus
when the blood culture report
was available. Severely-malnourished children may not exhibit typical clinical signs of pneumonia, and the
possibility of existence of such problems should be remembered in the assessment and provision of care to
hospitalized young children with severe malnutrition.
