Introduction
Infections of the respiratory system commonly present to the outpatient primary care setting. The first decision for the primary care provider is to determine the appropriate setting for treatment, in hospital or outpatient.1 The second decision is to initiate empiric therapy with or without an initial work-up for the microbial cause of the infection. In the outpatient setting, many cases of respiratory infection are amenable to naturopathic treatment as an alternative to the conventional standard of care. Where necessary, the standard of care treatment should be initiated without hesitation, yet in these circumstances naturopathic treatment may make an excellent adjunct to conventional care and may improve outcomes.
The world over, pneumonia is the most important infectious cause of death in children. Liu et al. (2012) analyzed global mortality figures from 2010 and determined that, of the 7.6 million children annually who do not reach their fifth birthday, two-thirds of them die from infectious causes; pneumonia is the leading cause of infection and death among them.2 In America, the combination of pneumonia and influenza remains the eighth leading cause of death, annually. This makes it the most common infection-related cause of mortality.3
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