Pneumonia Articles:
Pneumonia has more than 50 forms of which some are mild and some are life – threatening. This infection can occur after another condition like influenza, a cold or any other illness, or may be triggered on its own.
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A very serious form of atypical pneumonia is the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), a condition that affects greatly the lungs. This syndrome was over promoted in the past and erroneous ideas were emitted but those ideas can easy be disregarded when looking over the facts.
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The earliest symptoms of pneumonia were described by Hippocrates (460 B.C-380B.C).
In children the respiratory tract infections are very common, this later develops into pneumonia.
There are various bacteria that cause bacterial pneumonia. The streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common bacterium that causes bacterial pneumonia.
Aspiration pneumonia mainly occurs in patients who are seriously ill or are in coma, the serious illness refers to a state where the patient can barely breathe.
Pneumonia caused by certain bacteria namely Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Legionella pneumophila and mycoplasm pneumoniae is known as Atypical pneumonia.
Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi. This condition can affect any person but it represents a particular concern for old people, people with impaired immune system or with chronic illness. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among infants under the age of one year and it kills more than 60 thousands Americans every year.
Pneumonia has more than 50 forms of which some are mild and some are life – threatening. This infection can occur after another condition like influenza, a cold or any other illness, or may be triggered on its own. This condition develops suddenly showing a great variety of symptoms from which the most common are cough, shortness of breath, chills, fever and chest pain.
Some of the forms of pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics while others present a resistance to those medications and are very hard to cure. Due to those reasons, the best thing to do is to prevent the affliction rather than treat it.
When a person encounters the symptoms of pneumonia – cough, shortness of breath, chest pain that fluctuates with breathing, fever accompanied with chills and sweats or aggravation of a flu or cold – he or she should consult a doctor right away because this condition may become lethal in some cases if left untreated.
A higher attention should be given to this aspect by the old persons or people affected by injuries, alcoholism, chemotherapy or immunosuppressant drugs like prednisone. There are cases when pneumonia can prove to be lethal in no longer then one day if the patient is suffering heart failure or lung ailments.
When a person is diagnosed with pneumonia, the doctor will most likely request a reexamination after a period from 4 to 6 weeks after the first examination and treatment to establish whether the infection is completely cured. In case the patient isn't feeling better after the treatment, the scheduled visit will be followed by additional tests for the doctor to establish more accurate the causes of the symptoms.