Background: Respiratory tract infection refers to any of a number of infectious diseases involving the respiratory tract.  The present study was conducted to analyze RTI in children below 5 years of age.

Materials & Methods: It included 528 children below 5 years of age. Children having at least one of the following symptoms such cough, runny nose, ear discharge, and sore throat, which might be associated with fever, chest retractions, and fast breathing within the last 2 weeks, were considered.

Results: out of 528 children boys were 280 and girls were 295. The difference was non- significant (P-1). Symptoms in children were cold (270), cough (265), sore throat (27), ear discharge (12), associated fever (325), associated fever & fast breathing (8). The difference was significant (P-0.02). Most of the children were from urban (340) while 188 were from rural area. The difference was significant (P-0.01). 315 children were residing in overcrowding area while 213 were not.  The difference was significant (P-0.021). 270 children had birth weight <2.5 kg whereas 258 had >2.5 kg. The difference was non- significant (P-0.5). In 90 children, mothers were illiterate while in 438 children, mothers were literate. The difference was significant (P-0.001).

Conclusion: Children are more prone to develop respiratory tract infection. Symptoms include sore throat, cold, running nose, cough, fever and ear discharge. Mothers are literate in most of the cases.

Keywords: Cough, Sore throat, Respiratory tract infection.

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Shaksham Srivastava

Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics,

Mayo Institute of Medical Science Barabanki UP, India