Pneumonia causes many people to panic due to a lack of information. However, pneumonia is a disease treated at home or in the hospital, which occurs in children and premature babies with weak immune systems.
Implementing the correct treatment methods and improving living conditions make it easy to treat pneumonia.
What is pneumonia, and what are its symptoms?
Pneumonia describes inflammation of the lung tissue due to various factors. Bacteria and microorganisms are among the leading causes of this disease. Some types of pneumonia can be transmitted from patient to patient and infect other people.
However, most types of pneumonia develop when germs from the patient's digestive tract, throat, or mouth reach the lungs. These microbes do not cause disease alone, so it occurs if the person's immune system is weak rather than contagious pneumonia.
Pneumonia, a unilateral or bilateral infection, shows symptoms similar to a simple cold or upper respiratory tract infection.
This disease's symptoms, which start mildly at first, progress over time. The most common symptoms are listed as follows:
- Cough with discharge
- fever, chills, sweating, chills
- rapid breathing
- Chest wall retraction during breathing
- wheezing in the chest
- Chest and back pain
- Fatigue and loss of appetite
- Vomiting
- Headache
- Joint and muscle pains
- Reluctance to feed babies
How is pneumonia transmitted?
Pneumonia is an infectious disease such as influenza and viral respiratory diseases. Particles spilled during sneezing or coughing can infect other people. This infection can be transmitted from patient to patient using the same fork, knife, and glass, exchanging personal items.
Pneumonia, which is among the most common diseases all over the world, primarily affects infants and the elderly. In addition, individuals and children with weak immune systems are also at severe risk.
In such patients, pneumonia can cause serious complications, up to death. However, the transmission of the disease does not always result in the same result, so the strength of the individual's body resistance is a much more critical factor than the infection.
The risk factors for the development of pneumonia are:
- Advanced age
- Smoking
- Long-term history of surgery
- Lung diseases such as COPD, lung cancer
- Diabetes
- Liver and kidney diseases
- Nervous system disorders such as dementia
- heart diseases
- immune system deficiency
- AIDS
- lymph node cancers
Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment Methods
With the appearance of pneumonia symptoms, it is vital to consult a specialist physician and receive the necessary treatment. At this stage, the patient's history and complaints are essential for the proper treatment. In addition to the physical examination, various blood and urine tests are performed.
If necessary, liver and kidney functions, chest radiography, and computerized thorax imaging techniques are applied. Radiological examinations are essential methods that give transparent results in diagnosing pneumonia. Depending on the diagnosis, there are different treatment methods.
Generally, pneumonia patients are treated at home using antibiotics. Most patients can recover quickly by regularly using the medications recommended by the doctor and taking care of their immune system health.
The doctor must follow the medication course to get a definite result from the treatment. If the patient's condition does not improve with antibiotic therapy, additional dietary supplements can be used.
In cases where all these are insufficient and respiratory distress happens, the patient should be hospitalized and kept under observation. If the patient has complaints such as sputum discharge, drinking plenty of water during this period facilitates the removal of sputum. However, unconscious drug use without a doctor's advice is highly harmful.
Ways to Prevent Pneumonia
In preventing pneumonia, it is crucial to avoid the formation of the disease from the very beginning and eliminate the risk factors. A robust immune system also prevents the infection from causing dangerous complications.
For this reason, regular check-ups and follow-ups, and treatment are recommended in chronic patients. In addition, in these patients, avoiding alcohol, tobacco, and cigarettes, improving accommodation conditions, avoiding stress, and having healthy dietary habits are critical in preventing the disease.
Pneumonia is contagious from person to person, like an ordinary flu epidemic. For this reason, it is necessary to wear a mask in crowded environments, clean your hands with cologne and disinfectant after touching any place or someone, and be vaccinated to avoid infection.
The influenza virus can cause pneumonia and other lung infections. Pneumonia occurs when the flu is severe and fatal. Some vaccines protect for one year against the flu, and getting these vaccines eliminates the risk of disease.
You can get your flu shot in one dose in September and October annually. Thus, individuals in the risk group are protected against infection.
In addition, there is a vaccine called the pneumococcal vaccine, which protects from the most common microorganisms among the causes of pneumonia. This vaccine is administered intramuscularly and is repeated every five years. Other prevention steps for the disease are as follows:
- Fully and timely vaccination of childhood vaccinations,
- Keeping away the children and individuals from cigarette smoke,
- Protection of infants fed with breast milk from contact and the continuation of breast milk,
- Providing balanced and healthy nutritional conditions,
- Quitting harmful habits,
- Eating foods that will strengthen the immune system, avoiding packed and additive-containing foods,
- Drinking water,
- Regular health check-ups and tests, full implementation of the doctor's recommendations.
In addition, working with a specialist and professional physician will help to manage the whole process more accurately.