What is Pneumonia?

Pneumonia can make you feel very sick. It often feels similar to the flu. You may feel tired, short of breath and start breathing faster than normal. Your chest may feel tight. Usually, you’ll have a fever and a cough that produces yellow or greenish sputum. Sometimes you may cough up blood.

Pneumonia is usually caused by breathing in a bug such as a bacteria or a virus. Most of the time these germs get trapped in your sputum and your body will clear them without developing an infection. But sometimes the body cannot clear the bugs and they multiply, leading to infection.

Pneumonia can also happen if you breathe in poisonous chemicals, food, drink, vomit, or saliva into your lungs. This is called aspiration pneumonia. Aspiration is likely if something disturbs your gag reflex. Aspiration can happen if you have a brain injury, swallowing problems, or with excessive use of alcohol or drugs.

You’re more likely to catch pneumonia if you’re elderly or have a weak immune system, but healthy people can get pneumonia too. People on breathing machines are particularly at risk of developing pneumonia.

Covid-19 virus can lead to pneumonia, which can become severe. Hospitalization is recommended if your breathing problems become severe. See your doctor if you feel like your breathing is difficult and getting worse.

Early symptoms of pneumonia may feel like a regular cold or bronchitis. Fatigue, fever, coughing, shortness of breath are some early indicators of pneumonia. If your symptoms continue to get worse, you start to cough up yellow or green mucus, develop painful coughing or painful breathing, you may be developing pneumonia. See your doctor as soon as possible if you think you have pneumonia. Untreated pneumonia can lead to complications.

Mild pneumonia is usually treated at home with lots of rest, drinking plenty of fluids and over the counter medications to help you feel better. You might be prescribed antibiotics if you have pneumonia caused by a bacteria. How long your symptoms last depends on how serious your pneumonia is. In severe cases, you may need to be treated in a hospital.

Most people make a full recovery from pneumonia in weeks but it can take longer, depending on your overall health, age, and the severity of symptoms. If you’re taking antibiotics for pneumonia, your symptoms should start to improve after a few days. Let your doctor know if they do not improve. You may need to try a different medicine.

You may feel tired for a few weeks with pneumonia, but if you’re still having other symptoms after three weeks, check with your doctor.

In more serious cases, you may have to go to hospital. Hospital treatment may include antibiotics, fluids through an IV drip, or breathing treatments.

Pneumonia is often contagious. Some types of pneumonia are more contagious than others. You can spread the germs that cause pneumonia by coughing or sneezing. Aspiration pneumonia (caused by breathing in food or fluids) is not usually contagious.

If you’re given antibiotics to treat bacterial pneumonia, you’re considered contagious until the second day of taking the medicine and once your fever is gone. If you have viral pneumonia, you may be contagious until you no longer have a fever. You may still experience a cough even though you are no longer contagious.

Fever is common with pneumonia but not everyone experiences it. Very young children and people with immune system problems may have pneumonia without a fever. Some people get pneumonia and don’t experience a cough or a fever. This is often called walking pneumonia. Severity of symptoms will also play a part in whether or not you get a fever.

Walking pneumonia is a form of pneumonia in which the symptoms do not necessarily interfere with day to day activities. It can be picked up by anyone, and some people might not realize they have pneumonia. It can feel more like a cold. Symptoms can last for a week up to a month.

People with walking pneumonia often continue to go about their normal activities such as school or work without knowing they have pneumonia, but if symptoms do develop or worsen, they should be evaluated by a doctor.

Penicillin antibiotics are frequently used for treating pneumonia since they are often effective against common bacteria that cause pneumonia, but you may need to take a different antibiotic or more than one antibiotic depending on the type of pneumonia you have, any medication allergies or other medical conditions you may have and how severe your symptoms are. Antibiotics usually help you feel better within about three days, but you should always finish taking your full prescribed course of antibiotics even if you feel better. You should let your doctor know if you are allergic to antibiotics prior to starting any antibiotics or if there is a change in your condition after you start medications.

There are different forms of pneumonia like: bacterial, fungal (found in soil or bird dropping), and viral (cold and flu). These different types of pneumonia usually fall under community-acquired pneumonia. Your doctor will diagnose you for a specific type of pneumonia based on your symptoms and environmental exposures.