Community-Acquired Pneumonia among U.S. Children

To the Editor: In the Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC) study, Jain et al. (Feb. 26 issue) 1 update the data on the incidence and infectious causes of community-acquired pneumonia in the pediatric population. The authors carefully limited the study sample to children with disease that meets the clinical criteria for acute respiratory infection and has been confirmed on chest radiography and excluded those with confounding conditions, including an “alternative diagnosis of a respiratory disorder.” However, the authors inexplicably included patients with “asthma or reactive airway disease.” It is well known that patients with asthma can have radiographic abnormalities, . . .