• M F Harris, B Nolan, and A Davidson.
• Med. J. Aust. 1984 Jun 9; 140 (12): 705707705-7.

AbstractWe carried out a retrospective survey of all children born in the district of Bourke , New South Wales, over a three-year period to determine the frequency of lobar pneumonia in the first three years of life. Although more non-Aboriginal children (167) than Aboriginal children (103) were born during this period, there was a striking difference between these groups in the frequency of pneumonia. Twenty-six (25.2%) Aboriginal children had one or more episodes of lobar pneumonia, compared with only five (3%) non-Aboriginal children born during the same period. Characteristic features of the disease in the Aboriginal children included a high rate of recurrent pneumonia (35%), frequent involvement of the upper lobe of the right lung (77%), and often a family history of pneumonia in early childhood. Of those with siblings, 39% of the affected infants had siblings who had suffered from pneumonia in early childhood. No perinatal factors which correlated with the subsequent development of lobar pneumonia could be identified. However, a greater proportion of the affected than of the non-affected children lived in substandard housing conditions.

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