All about Pneumonia

More than 250,000 Americans require hospital care each year as a result of having pneumonia.

In addition to approximately 500 million affected globally. Pneumonia is a lung disease that is obtained through numerous amounts of bacteria, viral infections, or fungi found in the bronchi. It’s a disease that can transpire on one or both lungs. It occurs when microbes in the lungs cause your air sacs to swell with fluid or pus making it difficult for oxygen to reach the blood vessel. Since there are so many active pathogens during this process, some of the germs have the ability to be contagious depending on how effective the disease becomes.

Pneumonia can sometimes range from mild to severe conditions. Meaning, infections can go from being easily treatable to life threatening or even fatal circumstances. Identifying the virus in the body is more difficult since symptoms are more equivalent to having the flu or a cold. The most efficient way doctors diagnose a case is through medical history and or other physical exams. Though, people with greater risks of contamination are children 5 years or younger and elders 65 or older. The reason being is, people of that age tend to have a weaker immune system making it easier for bacteria to get trapped in the lungs.

About 30 causes of pneumonia have been recognized but only 3 are commonly detected. Yet, there isn't only one type of pneumonia. There are approximately, if not more, 10 different types diagnosed frequently. And just like many other deadly diseases there are stages, and pneumonia particularly containing 4. The stages include, consolidation, red hepatization, grey hepatization, and resolution. With stage 4(resolution) being the most lethal. It begins with uncontrollable coughing and or pain when breathing and continues to get worse from there.

The most common way people pick up pneumonia is through bacterial infections. One specific type of bacteria is streptococcus pneumoniae. Streptococcus is formed like lancet and comes in pairs of two. They are the major source of bacteria found in pneumonia. Other forms of bacteria may involve the ones found in air conditioning. Growth of mould and mildew in the air conditioning produce nose, throat, and ear infections. As temperatures rise chances of picking up disease causing bacteria becomes higher because of constant use of AC

Places with the highest percentage of people catching pneumonia are Africa and Asia. Considering the fact that people living in least developed countries are surrounded by an abundance of germs and bacteria. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death to children killing about 1 million in Africa in just a year with an additional 433 million contracting it in both Africa and Asia. However, pneumonia isn’t only affecting countries such as Asia or Africa, it generally affects all parts of the world killing about 5% of Ireland people. 

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