Name of the medical condition and other names that it’s been known by
• Pneumonia
• Sometimes, it’s called "walking pneumonia" when it's a milder form that doesn't require bed rest.
What is Pneumonia?
Pneumonia is an infection in your lungs that makes it hard to breathe. It happens when germs like bacteria, viruses, or fungi get into your lungs and cause inflammation. This inflammation makes the tiny air sacs in your lungs (called alveoli) fill up with fluid or pus. When these air sacs are full, it's harder for your lungs to work properly and get oxygen into your blood.
Think of your lungs like a sponge. When you're healthy, the sponge is dry and can easily soak up air. But when you have pneumonia, it's like the sponge is wet and heavy, making it harder to breathe in air.
Pneumonia can affect one or both lungs. When it's in both lungs, doctors sometimes call it "double pneumonia" or "bilateral pneumonia." The infection can be mild or severe, depending on what caused it and how healthy you were before getting sick.
Common symptoms of pneumonia include:
• Coughing that might bring up yellow, green, or even bloody mucus
• Fever and chills
• Feeling short of breath or breathing fast
• Chest pain that gets worse when you cough or breathe deeply
• Feeling very tired or weak
• Loss of appetite
Pneumonia can be caused by different things:
• Bacteria: This is the most common cause in adults. The most frequent type is Streptococcus pneumoniae.
• Viruses: These cause about a third of all pneumonia cases and are more common in kids. Viruses like the flu, RSV, or COVID-19 can lead to pneumonia.
• Fungi: This is less common and usually affects people with weak immune systems.
Doctors diagnose pneumonia by listening to your lungs, taking a chest X-ray, and sometimes doing blood tests or testing your mucus. Treatment depends on what caused the pneumonia:
• For bacterial pneumonia, antibiotics are used.
• Viral pneumonia often gets better on its own, but sometimes antiviral medicines help.
• Fungal pneumonia is treated with antifungal medicines.
• No matter what type you have, rest, drinking plenty of fluids, and taking medicine to reduce fever and pain are important for recovery.
Trend
• In the United States, about 1 million adults get pneumonia each year, and about 50,000 die from it.
• It's hard to know how many people have had pneumonia in the last five years because not everyone goes to the doctor for it. However, it can be estimated that around 5 million adults have had pneumonia in the past five years.
• Looking ahead five years, the number of pneumonia cases might increase slightly. This is because the population is getting older, and older people are more likely to get pneumonia. Also, with more people getting sick from viruses like COVID-19, there might be more cases of pneumonia as a complication. However, vaccines for pneumonia and other diseases that can lead to it might help keep the numbers from going up too much.
History
Pneumonia has been around for a very long time. Ancient Greek doctors like Hippocrates described it over 2,000 years ago. For most of history, people didn't know what caused it and couldn't do much to treat it.
In the 1800s, doctors started to understand that germs could cause pneumonia. A significant breakthrough came in the 1940s when antibiotics were discovered. This made it possible to treat bacterial pneumonia effectively for the first time. In the 1970s, a vaccine was developed to prevent some types of pneumonia.
Today, we have better ways to diagnose and treat pneumonia, but it's still a serious illness, especially for young children, older adults, and people with weak immune systems.
Source of Information
• Cleveland Clinic
• John Hopkins Medicine
• Medical News Today
For informational purposes only. Consult a medical professional for advice.
