Does procalcitonin have clinical utility in the management of paediatric community-acquired pneumonia? A PRO/CON debate.

Although the overwhelming majority of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children is caused by viral infections, treatment of CAP is among the most common indications for antibiotic use in children. This is largely driven by the imprecision of clinical diagnostic tools to differentiate viral from bacterial pneumonia and highlights the need for improved approaches to optimizing management of CAP in children. In this issue of JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance , we present a PRO/CON debate that discusses the clinical utility of procalcitonin in children with CAP.