Pneumonia is a severe infection that affects one or both the lungs of a human. This disease is caused due to specific bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Among these all causes, bacterial pneumonia is known to be the most common type of disease in adults.
Causes
Normally, Pneumonia causes irritation in the air sacs in your lungs and are called alveoli. The alveoli are filled with liquid or pus, making it difficult to breathe. Healthy people recover from pneumonia within one week or it may take two to three weeks if there is a severe condition of pneumonia which can be life-threatening as well.
Viral Pneumonia
Viral pneumonia is common among human and people get affected by this kind. Sometimes, typical antibiotics will not do for viral pneumonia; but the physician may need to prescribe some different antiviral medication. Generally, the patients with viral pneumonia recover in one to three weeks.
Bacterial Pneumonia
Patients may also cause bacterial pneumonia which is a mild fever which is cured easily. This type of mild fever is treated with oral macrolide antibiotics including azithromycin, clarithromycin, or erythromycin. Pneumonia patients who have other severe diseases likely heart diseases, kidney diseases, diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases are often prescribed higher antibiotics dose. Moreover, the patients should use proper diet and must get pure oxygen to increase the level of oxygen in the blood.
Symptoms
The symptoms of pneumonia mostly vary from mild to severe. It depends upon certain factors such as the type of germ or bacteria causing the infection of pneumonia. Mild symptoms of pneumonia are generally similar to those of a cold or flu, but in the case of pneumonia, they last somehow longer. Pneumonia symptoms may include as given below:
* Fever, chills and sweating continues.
* Patient coughs mucus.
* Tiredness and shortness in breath is felt.
* Vomiting or diarrhea and Nausea.
* Chest pain while breathing and coughing.
* Older age patients may feel confusion or changes in mental awareness.
* Older patients with weak immune systems can have low body temperature
If you observe the newborn babies or infants have a fever, cough, vomit, difficulty in breathing or eating and seem to appear restless or fatigued and without energy. They all are the symptoms that newborns or infants have got pneumonia, you should at once visit a doctor for proper checkup and treatment.
Diagnosis
The doctor may suggest the patients who are suffering from pneumonia to take an X-ray image of their lungs to identify the real cause of the fever. The chest X-ray will show the exact condition of the pneumonia type. Also, clear your doctor with your previous medical history so that he can treat your illness in the right direction. The physical exam will be done by listening to your lungs with his stethoscope and to check the sound of your abnormal bubbling or crackling that may suggest the type of pneumonia.
Treatment
If one gets pneumonia of any kind, there are several treatments available for curing the disease. But, the treatment depends upon the cause of pneumonia type because if a person is suffering from a severe type of pneumonia then it is treated in a different way depending upon patient’s age and overall health. The treatment involves curing the pneumonia fever and of course, the preventing of complications. While the people who have public-attained pneumonia typically can be cured at home with specific medication. Although most of the symptoms of pneumonia can be recovered in a few days or within a week, the feeling of weariness can continue for a month or more.
Specific Prescription
The patients are prescribed specific antibiotics from the authentic doctor to cure bacterial pneumonia. The doctor may also prescribe you to take fever reducers and pain relievers which you may take as per doctor’s recommendation to recover from pneumonia fever and its discomfort. Sometimes, it takes time to recognize the type of bacteria that is causing pneumonia and doctor chooses the best antibiotic to cure it accordingly. Furthermore, you should also identify that there are very few cough medicines which lessen pneumonia coughing precisely.