Pneumonia disease - Case Study Example

As pneumonia takes place within the lungs, the bacteria, viruses, and fungi attack the lungs and make it difficult to breathe. Other symptoms, such as coughing, fever, and a sore throat make the disease seem like a normal flu or cold, so it is important that the patient is diagnosed properly and immediately to avoid long-lasting difficulties. Since the lungs, incredibly vital organs, are effected, the sooner treatment begins the better chance the patient has at overcoming the disease. Medications are used to fight the virus depending on the type of bacteria that causes pneumonia.

Proper treatment also ensures that the disease is not passed on to others. When pneumonia is not treated properly, it can lead to death. Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of child deaths in the United States and in Europe, claiming the lives of approximately thirty-six children per every one thousand under the age of five (Hale & Isaacs, 2006). In developing countries, where medication and treatment is hard to come by, sees over two million child deaths each year due to pneumonia. A 43-year-old woman is taken to the emergency room with complaints of a dry cough and difficulties with breathing when she is doing activities that are remotely strenuous.

Three months previously, this woman brought her concerns to her primary doctor, as well as complaints of weight loss and night sweats. Chest radiographs were undergone to reveal that the woman had bilateral lower lobe infiltrates (Hadid & Aiman, 2007). The woman was then diagnosed with a form of pneumonia known as community-acquired pneumonia. Though she received medication, her symptoms did not improve; indeed, they only worsened over time. Further chest radiographs revealed that her condition was not improving, regardless of her six weeks usage of oral antibiotics.

The most common symptom of any form of pneumonia is a cough that produces green or yellow sputum. Since the infection takes place within the lungs, these organs are the