Summative Project on Medical Condition

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of lungs which is responsible for affecting small air sacs, that is, alveoli. Typical symptoms of this disease are chest pain, dry cough, trouble breathing and fever. Some people may also experience shaking chills and increased rate of breathing as well. It is caused due to infection of bacteria or virus and less commonly occur due to presence of other organisms. There are other risk factors involved with the condition of pneumonia as well related to lungs. These are COPD, cystic fibrosis, poor ability of coughing, asthma, diabetes, heart failure, leading to weakening overall the immune system. The disease is generally diagnosed through physical examination. Other tests that help in confirming the existence of disease include blood examinations, Chest X-Ray and sputum assessment as well. There are certain vaccines available that can help in preventing specific types of pneumonia. Other preventive methods include hand washing and not smoking. The main cause behind pneumonia helps in deciding that which type of treatment must be given to patient (Butcher and et.al., 2018). In maximum cases, it occurs due to bacterial infection and hence is treated with the help of antibiotics. In severe cases, the individual is also hospitalized. If patient faces continuous problems with breathing, then in certain conditions, oxygen therapy is also given.

Pneumonia, which is caused by Legionella may have symptoms such as abdominal pain, confusion and diarrhoea. If it has occurred due to Klebsiella, patient may experience bloody sputum. Lung abscesses may lead to chronic bronchitis. When pneumonia is caused due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, it has direct association to swelling of the lymph nodes in neck. Predicting the underlying cause may prove to be difficult in some cases as patient may experience combination of symptoms. There are more than 100 strains of infection agents present that are identified to be pneumonia causing representatives. However, only few of them are responsible in majority of the cases (Sørensen and et.al., 2013). Mixed infections are prone in 45% of children and 15% in adults. Risk factors related to predisposing condition of pneumonia include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney illness, alcoholism, immunodeficiency, smoking, asthma and liver ailment. Extreme use of acid suppressing medicines in form of proton pump inhibitors or H2 blockers can lead to increase the overall risk of

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