Pneumonia Essay -- Papers

Pneumonia Pneumonia is a serious infection or inflammation of your lungs. There are two main types Pneumonia one of these is bacterial pneumonia. This can attack anyone from infants to the very old. People who are alcoholics, debilitated, post-operative patients, people with respiratory diseases or viral infections and people who have weakened immune systems are at greater risk. Pneumonia bacteria are present in some healthy throats. When body defences are weakened in some way, by illness, old age, malnutrition, general debility or impaired immunity, the bacteria can multiply and cause serious damage. Usually, when a person's resistance is lowered, bacteria work their way into the lungs and inflame the air sacs and a person's temperature may rise as high as 105 degrees F. The other one is viral pneumonia. Half of all pneumonias are believed to be caused by viruses. More and more viruses are being identified as the cause of respiratory infection, and though most attack the upper respiratory tract, some produce pneu...