What is pneumonia?
Pneumonia, or as it is called - lung inflammation, is the infection of one or both lungs which is usually caused by bacteria, fungus and viruses. Until the moment when penicillin was discovered, every third sick person died from the infection. Despite all the achievements of modern medicine, pneumonia remains a serious and dangerous disease. 5% of the patients with pneumonia die.
How can you get pneumonia?
In some cases, the disease is transmitted drip-virally. A sick person sneezes; his secretions contain bacteria and micro-organisms which, getting into the lungs of a healthy person, cause inflammatory infectious processes. In other cases, pneumonia occurs due to the increased activity of bacteria which are always present in the human nose and throat. During the decline of immune protection the body cannot fight this viruses, they immediately begin to multiply, enter the lungs and cause inflammation. This can happen due to hypothermia or viral infections that weaken the immune system (American Lung Association).
Symptoms
Symptoms of pneumonia are quite diverse. In recent years, asymptomatic course of disease happens more frequently, during the disease a human doesn’t have elevated temperature, cough and sputum. Such treatment of pneumonia begins with a delay, so it is dangerous due to the appearance of complications.
The main symptoms of pneumonia include the following: increase in temperature ranging from 37 to 39.5 degrees, shortness of breath and sputum production, chills, cough. Sometimes there are bloody discharges that come in the form of streaks of blood structured in the sputum. Also a quite common symptom is a pain in the chest when trying to make a deep breath, usually the pain is developed in the place where the main focus of inflammation is. Very often painful sensations appear at the pleural form of pneumonia.
The cough is not a characteristic symptom because the infection can be located far from the main respiratory tract. Sometimes, the color of the skin may change (due to the development of cyanosis). In addition, the disease may be accompanied by headache, loss of consciousness and fever (Bree Normandin, 2015).
Diagnostics
Usually, a suspicion of pneumonia may occur during the examination by a doctor. However, you can ask your doctor to appoint an additional examination (based on the data about the symptoms of lung disease), usually it is an X-ray. The x-ray is the main tool in the diagnosis of the disease. On the radiograph the inflammatory focus is clearly fixed (it may be inflammation of some part that develops locally on one of the lung lobes or more extensive process).
Besides X-ray, a laboratory analysis of the contents of the sputum collected by expectoration is conducted. It establishes the nature of pneumonia (the presence of bacteria, viruses and micro-organisms talks about infectious process). It is very important that after the expectoration the sputum should quickly get on the laboratory bench, otherwise the lab assistant simply will not be able to detect the presence of infection.
Also a blood test is used for the diagnostics. The increased number of white blood cells indicates a bacterial or viral form of pneumonia.
Bronchoscopy – a pretty unpleasant procedure that allows not only diagnosing the disease, but also conducting the direct study of bronchi. During bronchoscopy through a thin tube inserted into the nose or mouth of a patient, the doctor examines the bronchi and, if necessary, can take the mucous form the place of inflammation. Sometimes bronchoscopy shows a large amount of liquid. In this case, a lung puncture is made and the liquid is removed through the long needle. If necessary, the liquid is removed from the lungs surgically (American Lung Association).
The microorganisms that cause the disease
The most common causes of bacterial pneumonia are Streptococcus and Staphylococcus. These forms are characterized by a sudden development of disease, sharp rise in temperature and rust-colored sputum. This is a very dangerous form of the flow of infection which with a probability of 25% can be fatal.
For the prevention of infectious inflammation of lungs a special vaccine is used. For example, from the pneumococcal infection children can be vaccinated from the age of two (Bree Normandin, 2015).
Treatment of pneumonia
Antibiotics are used in treating all types of pneumonia, regardless of the nature of their origin. Unfortunately, the infectious pneumonia cannot be treated only by penicillin because viruses and bacteria have become resistant to this drug.
Antibiotics of the second and third generations are also often used for treatment - cephalosporin, amoxicillin, clavulanate, levofloxacin and sulfamethoxazole. At the slow development of pneumonia it is recommended to use antibiotics which contain sulfur.
During the treatment of pneumonia caused by adenoviruses, rhinoviruses and influenza viruses, antibiotics often do not give the proper therapeutic effect. In such cases, it is required to add antiviral drugs.
During the fungal form of inflammation of the respiratory system it is required to use drugs which act locally on each type of fungus (American Lung Association).
References
American Lung Association. Learn About Pneumonia. Retrieved from http://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/pneumonia/learn-about-pneumonia.html
Bree Normandin. (2015). Pneumonia. Retrieved from http://www.healthline.com/health/pneumonia#Overview1
