Figure 1

Patient flow. ¹ Inclusion criteria: Children aged >60 daysand <12 years with severe febrile illness including impaired consciousness(prostration or coma) and/or respiratory distress (increased work of breathing)were screened for clinical evidence of impaired perfusion (shock) to be eligiblefor the trial. Impaired perfusion was defined as any one of the following: CRT 3or more secs, lower limb temperature gradient, a weak radial pulse volume orsevere tachycardia: (<12 months: >180 beats per minute (bpm); 12 months to 5years: >160bpm; >5 years: >140 bpm). ² Exclusion criteria:Evidence of severe acute malnutrition (visible severe wasting or kwashiorkor);gastroenteritis; chronic renal failure, pulmonary edema or other conditions inwhich volume expansion is contraindicated; non-infectious causes of severe illness(68); if they already received an isotonic volume resuscitation. ³Otherreasons for exclusion: child unable to return for follow-up (111), enrolled in adifferent study (65), no trial packs/fluid or blood (47), previously enrolled toFEAST (17), died (11), other (181), missing reason (26). ⁴Severehypotension defined as systolic blood pressure <50mmHg if <12m; <60mmHgif 1-5years; <70mmHg if >5years- eligible children with severe hypotension wereenrolled into FEAST B (see text) ⁵Child was not febrile (had no feveror history of fever). ⁶One child had severe hypotension and one childdid not have impaired perfusion.