ROME (ITALPRESS) – Pneumonia is an acute inflammation of lung tissue caused primarily by an infection that can affect one or both lungs. The disease affects the interstitium and pulmonary alveoli, tiny air chambers within which the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place. When pneumonia is present, the alveoli fill with pus or fluid, making breathing difficult and reducing oxygenation. In Italy, pneumonia is one of the most common causes of respiratory tract infection; the incidence is higher in winter and among children, the elderly and people with chronic diseases. According to data from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità , there are between 100,000 and 150,000 cases of pneumonia each year. In general, mortality from pneumonia is estimated to be around 1%-2% in the general population, but can rise to 5%-10% in at-risk individuals. These are some of the issues discussed by Stefano Centanni, full professor of respiratory diseases at the University of Milan and director of the pneumology complex operating unit at ASST- Santi Paolo e Carlo, interviewed by Marco Klinger, for Medicina Top, a TV format of the Italpress news agency. “Last spring and the summer just past there was an increase in cases of pneumonia, likely related to the weather conditions,” he began. “After Covid to respiratory symptoms we pay much more attention, while in the past a little fever and cough went unnoticed, now everyone is more careful, even doctors. Severe pneumonias have always been recognized But sometimes you see an x-ray with some scarring from a pneumonia that the patient never knew he had.” “Pneumonias do not only affect children, the elderly or the weak, but also young athletes,” Centanni explained. “At the clinical level, symptoms such as fever and cough disappear, then slowly through blood tests healing occurs. There is an internal distinction between typical and atypical pneumonias: “Not all pneumonias are infectious, some are due and immunological reasons or radiation. As for the infectious ones, there are typical and atypical ones,” he stressed, “The typical ones bring high fever, chills, cough, some chest pain. They are called typical because they affect the alveolus of the lung, they have a bacterial origin, and the king in this case is pneumococcus. The atypical one is the interstitial one, in which the alveolus is more spared,” the professor added, “We have known it with Covid, it can be due to any type of virus and three bacteria including legionella. As for treatment, “Typical pneumonia needs antibiotic therapy, the earlier you start the better. Pneumonias are very frequent events, we distinguish between community-acquired or hospital-acquired, these are worse because there are bacterial clusters that are more resistant to antibiotics,” Centanni recounted. “In atypical pneumonias, the viruses are insensitive to most antibiotics, which are still given to protect against bacterial overlap, but they are sensitive to very few antibiotics. And as for the increased awareness related to symptoms due to the pandemic: “Today people are paying much more attention to even trivial symptoms that they used to pay little attention to. Today it’s very easy to see patients come in and say they have a cough as a symptom,” he reiterated, “Covid infection in the milder forms has cleared the way for symptoms that may actually be much more generic. Typical pneumonia is easy to identify, the patient was fine and then has a fever of 38, chills, malaise, cough. Generally it’s a very acute symptomatology,” he commented, “Atypical pneumonia conversely has more nuanced and less striking symptoms, but if they don’t pass, it’s right to go to the doctor. Finally, on the importance of vaccination to prevent the most severe cases and deaths, “It is estimated that in Italy there are about 150,000 hospitalizations per year for pneumonia with 9,000 annual deaths,” the professor added, “Generally they are frail, elderly or debilitated people, but today we need to develop the concept of vaccination, there are vaccines that are very useful in pneumonia optics. There is the vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, which is important for both adults and children, and then vaccination against influenza,” he concluded, “Unfortunately, it is always underused especially in the over-65s, we should all get it.
– photo taken from Top Medicine video -(ITALPRESS).
