CHILDREN’S HEALTH: PNEUMONIA

Posted under General health by admin

Symptoms

Bacterial pneumonia: mild upper respiratory tract infection; high fever; chills; cough; rapid breathing; chest pain.

Viral pneumonia: headache; fatigue; fever; sore throat; severe, dry cough.

Home care:

Viral pneumonia usually clears up on its own.

Bacterial pneumonia requires medical attention.

Precautions

-    Watch for signs of pneumonia in a child whose resistance is lowered by a cold or infection.

-    If a cold suddenly gets worse and is accompanied by high fever, cough, chills, chest pain, or rapid breathing, suspect pneumonia.

-    Flaring of the nostrils, grunting breathing, and pulling in of the chest in an infant are serious and require immediate medical attention.

-    If a child coughs up a discharge tinged with blood, consult a doctor.

Pneumonia is an infection of one or more areas of the lungs. It’s caused by bacteria or viruses. The common bacterial cause of pneumonia is pneumococcus or, less often, streptococcus or staphylococcus. The viral causes include the influenza and parainfluenza viruses, the respiratory syncytial virus, and adenoviruses. Pneumonia also may be caused by mycoplasma organisms.

In order to contract bacterial pneumonia, the child must be exposed to ê at a time when he or she is particularly susceptible. Pneumococci, streptococci, and staphylococci bacteria frequently are present in the nose and throat of a healthy child. Before these organisms can invade the lungs, however, the child’s resistance must be lowered by a cold or some other upper respiratory tract infection. Therefore bacterial pneumonia is not considered to be contagious in the usual sense.

The types of pneumonia that are caused by viruses are known as “walking pneumonias” and are contagious. The incubation period – the time it takes for the symptoms to develop once the child is exposed to the disease – for mycoplasma is one to three weeks; for most viruses it is two to five days.

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