POS-ARI-PC

Acute respiratory tract infection (ARI) is the most common reason for consulting in community care. Community care includes general practices, urgent care centers, and paediatric care centers. Moreover, new and re-emerging pathogens are often first noticed in primary care. This study provides an estimate of the overall incidence of illness and individual diagnoses, a full description of clinical features and management, which may predict both mild and more severe outcomes. It is able to identify variation in management and care, providing critical data for care planning and informing clinical guidelines.

There are four important areas of focus in the management of ARI in primary care:

1. Accurate diagnosis and prediction of complications;
2. Making appropriate antibiotic and antiviral prescribing decisions;
3. Optimizing patient care and treatment in an epidemic or pandemic situation;
4. Prevention, for example through vaccination.

The primary objective of this study is to provide critically important benchmark descriptive data on the presentation and management of ARI, and a research-ready infrastructure for enhanced observational studies, and clinical trials related to treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of ARI in the community care setting. The secondary objectives include descriptive analyses related to patient characteristics, complications, outcome and risk factors.