May I Know The Reason For Pneumonia And Symptoms?

Hi XXXXXX,

You have asked a question which is a very vast topic, however I’ll try and answer it in brief and in as simple a language as possible.

Pneumonia means infection of lungs. It may involve a part or whole of one or both the lungs. The extent of involvement depends on many factors, most important being the severity of infection or immunity of the patient.

There are many types of pneumonia and similarly there are many causes of pneumonia. The commonest type and what generally people call pneumonia is `Community Acquired Pneumonia`. The commonest organism for this type of pneumonia is Streptococcus pneumoniae. It is an air borne infection and commonly spreads thru air from person to person though it can spread by other means also.

It generally starts as a common cold with fever and sore throat. As infection goes down to the airways and lungs, patient develops high grade fever with chills and rigors and has cough with sputum. Sputum may be yellow in colour or rust coloured if there is blood in it. Patient may have generalized body ache or even chest pain.

At this stage most of the patients respond to treatment and recover. If not treated in time or sometimes because of some other factors, patient may develop more serious symptoms like breathlessness, bluish discolouration of lips, nails and tongue or even may go into shock.

This is in nutshell about pneumonia and it`s symptoms. I do hope this answers your question. If you have any more queries regarding pneumonia, I’ll be pleased to answer them.

Regards,

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No, it`s not a hereditary disease. As i`ve already said, it`s an infective disease.

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