Potentially. Pneumonia is diagnosed by chest radiograph and it's possible that the fever resolves before pneumonia does.

It would be unusual for a child to have a true bacterial pneumonia without a fever (defined as greater than 100.4 degrees). However this could happen if the child did not have a normal immune system and was not able to mount a fever like other children would. Children can have a viral pneumonia without a fever - but this type of pneumonia would not require antibiotics.

Heather Collette