After Getting Pneumonia for the First Time Can I Easily Get It Again?

Hillary Clinton contracted pneumonia, and everyone wondered: What did it mean? Was this serious or not?

When presidential candidate Hillary Clinton fell casualty to pneumonia recently, questions most the seriousness and implications of her illness permeated the media. We too wondered if nosotros knew as much about the illness as we thought we did.

We sought answers from Katharine DeGeorge, Medico, MS, a UVA family medicine physician voted "Best Full general Practitioner" in C-Ville Weekly's Best of C-Ville 2015 and 2016, who gave us some insight.

What were your first thoughts when you heard Clinton had pneumonia? "Oh dear" or "no large deal"? Or "of form, she'southward probably exhausted"?

No big bargain.

Why?

Because pneumonia is fairly common, and the vast majority of otherwise healthy patients volition recover and be able to go nigh their business within a few weeks.

What exactly is pneumonia?

Regardless of whether it'due south a viral or bacterial organism causing the infection, pneumonia occurs when the infectious organisms group together in the lungs along with allowed cells that are trying to fight the infection and interfere with normal lung role and tin can block the flow of oxygen.

Sometimes people get the flu and pneumonia dislocated – Bill Clinton called his wife'south status the flu, for case. What's the difference, and which is worse?

Information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel to go them confused. Both are mutual respiratory illnesses that:

• May cause fever, cough and excessive fatigue
• Have the potential to cause serious illness or even expiry, though most people fully recover

A simple breast X-ray can help us brand the correct diagnosis if we aren't certain afterwards a expert history and physical exam. Making the right diagnosis is important because information technology oftentimes affects our handling plans.

Influenza vs. Pneumonia

The flu:

• Acquired by a virus – so antibiotics won't help
• Infects olfactory organ, pharynx and lungs
• Symptoms vary but tin include fever, chills, cough, headache, muscle and joint pain, sore throat, nasal congestion, full general fatigue, and even diarrhea or vomiting (mainly in kids) and last about 3-7 days
• No shortness of jiff in simple cases
• More contagious than pneumonia
• People usually get amend on their own with rest, fluids and over the counter medications
• Can develop into pneumonia in more serious cases

Pneumonia:

• Most often acquired by a bacteria
• Affects the lower respiratory tract and lungs
• Symptoms that distinguish information technology from the flu include difficulty or pain with breathing and a persistent cough productive of thick yellow/green sputum
• Most people need antibiotics to get improve
• More likely to require hospitalization than the influenza

Who Gets Pneumonia?

Are some people more prone?  Does getting pneumonia mean someone has a weak immune system or something?

Getting pneumonia doesn't necessarily mean that your immune system is weak. Lots of perfectly healthy people get pneumonia.

All the same, the chance of developing pneumonia is college for people with sure conditions such as:

• Asthma
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD)
• Diabetes
• Chronic respiratory disease
• Dementia
• Excessive alcohol utilise
• Center disease
• Smoking
• Stroke

Pneumonia tin also accept serious complications or fifty-fifty be mortiferous, especially for people who:

• Are very young (0-4 years one-time)
• Are age 65 and older
• Have immune systems weakened past other serious illnesses or medications

In the United states, almost x per centum of people over the age of 65 who are hospitalized for pneumonia volition die within 30 days, so this tin exist very serious stuff.

Practise symptoms nowadays differently in older people?

They sure can. The typical symptoms of pneumonia tin exist more subtle in older people, or they can present differently birthday, with the merely sign of illness being weakness, confusion or collapsing.

Exercise stress and exhaustion make it worse?

Stress and burnout can nearly definitely atomic number 82 to worse symptoms or complicating conditions, about notably dehydration, in people with pneumonia. Dehydration itself tin lead to weakness and confusion, and can besides cause depression blood force per unit area, which again tin can lead to weakness, existence unsteady on your anxiety, and collapse. It sounds trite, but our grandmothers were correct when they told the states to balance and drink plenty of fluids when we are sick! Our bodies need to conserve as of energy they can to fight pneumonia and become on the route to a full recovery.

Is it obvious if someone has it? As in, if you were watching Clinton, or a colleague at work, would their symptoms be obvious or not?

Nigh people with pneumonia volition appear at least a little sick. You might notice them:

• Coughing a lot
• Looking flushed or similar they are sweating
• Walking more than slowly or unsteadily
• Having a hard fourth dimension speaking or walking without having to pause to catch their breath

Some people, however, have mild cases of pneumonia that tin go unnoticed birthday or exist mistaken for a simple common cold, cough or allergies.

Types of Pneumonia

Some people find the divergence between viral and bacterial pneumonias confusing. Which is more severe?

Often, but not always, viral pneumonia is less astringent than bacterial pneumonia and requires only rest, fluids and, for some, supplemental oxygen. People with bacterial pneumonia need treatment with antibiotics without which at that place is a much greater risk of a prolonged or more than astringent illness course and complications.

Is in that location such a thing every bit 'double' or 'triple' pneumonia? Why is it called walking pneumonia?

Walking pneumonia is a colloquialism that generally refers to a mild instance of pneumonia, often caused past an "singular" bacterial organism (because it'due south not the typical agent that causes pneumonia), called Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This mild form of pneumonia can be and so mild that people don't even know they have it, or if they do, the symptoms don't forestall participation in normal activities (including walking, thus the term "walking pneumonia").

Double pneumonia (sometimes called bronchial pneumonia) simply refers to infections in two (of the iii) lobes of the lungs, and by and large indicates a more severe infection that oftentimes requires hospitalization.

Triple pneumonia is a trivial more than complicated. Basically it occurs when a person with pneumonia (oft double pneumonia) is treated and clears the original infection, but and so gets a subsequent example of pneumonia affecting one or both lungs. Triple pneumonia carries a much worse prognosis than elementary lobar pneumonia (affecting just 1 lobe).

Treatment & Prevention

How easy it is to become rid of it or stop it in its tracks?

When appropriate antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia are started right away, many people with pneumonia tin can be back to their normal state of health within a couple weeks, although some volition have a lingering cough or fatigue that tin last for a month or more.

Smokers or people with underlying lung atmospheric condition like asthma or chronic bronchitis may have a harder time getting back to baseline. The key to stopping pneumonia in its tracks is prompt diagnosis and treatment.

Is there a vaccine?

In that location are ii types of pneumonia vaccines available. They protect against the most mutual and ambitious serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the organism most often responsible for bacterial pneumonia. However, pneumonia can be acquired by other organisms, including viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic species, so the vaccines do not prevent against all forms of pneumonia. Getting pneumonia once doesn't hateful yous can't get it once more.

We recommend these vaccines equally role of routine childhood immunizations and for people aged 65 years and older, or those with sure medical problems that increase the hazard of pneumonia or its complications. The pneumonia vaccines are only given a few times during your life, which is different than flu shots, which you should get yearly.

Concerns to Consider

As a doctor, what are your primary concerns when you discover a patient has pneumonia?

The first thing that goes through my head when seeing a patient with suspected pneumonia is "sick or not sick." Infections like this can lead to a severe systemic response that y'all don't want to miss called sepsis, which requires prompt action. Vital signs such as trunk temperature, heart rate, respiratory charge per unit, oxygen level and blood force per unit area help determine just how sick the patient is and whether or not they need to be hospitalized.

Do You Have Pneumonia Symptoms?

Find a family medicine or primary care doctor near you.

Another essential piece of the puzzle is determining if the infection may have been picked up from a infirmary or other health-care facility similar a nursing dwelling house. Pathogens that alive in these places take a greater chance of being antibiotic resistant and crave different treatment considerations.

For most people, especially those without other serious medical conditions, a simple class of antibiotics along with residual and fluids volition do, and they'll exist dorsum on their feet in no time.

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Source: https://blog.uvahealth.com/2016/09/28/pneumonia-101-qa/

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