The main objective of the trial is to evaluate the effect of point-of-care testing of respiratory pathogens at a pediatric emergency room on the antibiotic consumption and hospital admissions in acutely ill children.

The study is a randomized controlled trial including children 0 up to 17 years of age with fever or acute respiratory infection at a pediatric emergency department in university hospital. In total 1668 subjects will be randomly allocated to undergo point-of-care multiplex respiratory pathogen testing with results ready within approximately one hour or to a control group with testing according to clinical judgement and results ready within next office day. Subjects will be randomized on admission and unequal allocation ratio of 2:1 (1112 subjects to intervention and 556 subjects to control arm) will be used. Data on rate of hospitalization, antibiotic prescriptions, ancillary testing and length of visit will be collected using medical record system.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Any respiratory symptom defined as tachypnea, shortness of breath, apnea, wheezing, cough, rhinitis, croup, sneezing, ear ache, or sore throat AND/OR
• Fever > 38.0 C

Exclusion Criteria:

• Need of resuscitation at emergency room
• Need of immediate transfer to pediatric intensive care unit

Anonymized data will be shared according to the practice in place at the time of the study completion.

At the study completion or at submission

For reviewers and editors before publishing and after publishing for the whole research community