Cooler weather and close quarters with our fellow-man can bring on coughs and colds, with that in mind…Did you know?
Pneumonia has several different causes, types, and treatments. Here are 10 pneumonia phrases you should know.
The terminology may be confusing, but it’s important to understand pneumonia because it kills more than 50,000 Americans every year.
Here are 10 pneumonia terms you should know:
Double pneumonia: Double pneumonia is just a descriptive term for any type or cause of pneumonia that affects both lungs.
Walking pneumonia: This term for pneumonia simply means that a person with a mild case of pneumonia is well enough to “walk around.”
About 50 percent of pneumonia cases are caused by viruses, and they tend to be less serious than bacterial pneumonias. Walking pneumonia may also describe atypical pneumonia and mycoplasma pneumonia.
Atypical pneumonia: These pneumonias cause less fever, less cough, and less mucus production than bacterial pneumonias.
Atypical pneumonias include the pneumonia that causes Legionnaire’s disease, which can be caught by inhaling infected droplets from air conditioning systems, spas, or fountains.
Chlamydophila pneumonia is a mild, atypical pneumonia seen in older people.
Mycoplasma pneumonia: This pneumonia may be described as both atypical and walking pneumonia.
It’s caused by a tiny organism that is related to bacteria. Mycoplasma infections are more common in young people and spread like a common cold in tight living conditions.
Symptoms, which are similar to the flu, can usually be treated with antibiotics.
This type of pneumonia usually doesn’t require a hospital stay, which is why a mycoplasma infection is sometimes called walking pneumonia.
Opportunistic pneumonia: This term describes all pneumonias that attack anyone with a weakened immune system.
The germs that cause these pneumonias usually do not make healthy people sick. An example is Pneumocystis pneumonia, which was once considered a parasitic pneumonia but is now classified as a fungus.
Opportunistic pneumonias are most common in people who have HIV/AIDS, are undergoing cancer treatment, or who had an organ transplant.
Bronchial pneumonia: Any pneumonia can affect your lung in two basic ways, bronchial and lobar. Bronchial pneumonia occurs in patches throughout both lungs.
The term ‘bronchial’ means that the airways throughout the lungs are also involved in pneumonia.
People with asthma and bronchitis are at risk for pneumonia because mucus production blocks these passages.
Lobar pneumonia: This term describes a pneumonia that settles in a section of your lung called a lobe.
Lobar pneumonia is usually caused by pneumococcus bacteria and tends to be more serious and extensive.
Aspiration pneumonia: This is a type of pneumonia caused by breathing food or liquid into your lungs.
These substances cause irritation in your lungs, and an infection may follow.
You could be at risk for this type of pneumonia if you vomit while you’re drunk, if you have a neurological disease that interferes with your ability to swallow, or if stomach acid seeps up into your throat at night (gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD).
source: Everyday Health
