Pneumonia: a dangerous disease found during the rainy season

Pneumonia: a dangerous disease found during the rainy season

Pneumonia is a dangerous disease found during the rainy season. This disease can happen to anyone who is not healthy and has low immunity. Mostly it will be found in patients who have already had a cold, influenza, tonsillitis, measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, etc. The worse is patients with this disease will be at risk of developing other diseases, such as lung abscess, pus in the pleural space, lung collapse (atelectasis), bronchiectasis, meningitis, membranes heart inflammation (pericarditis), peritonitis, acute arthritis, septicemia, mainly hypoxia and dehydration. If it is found in young children and the elderly, it may cause rapid death.

Cause of disease

• Infections (most of them), such as bacteria, viruses (influenza, measles, and chickenpox), fungi, and chemicals. The germs are spread by coughing, sneezing, or breathing.
• Aspiration of chemicals or food particles into the lungs
• Spreading the infection through the blood stream, such as injections, saline administration, inflammation in other organs, etc.

Acute symptoms

• High fever, about 39-40 degrees Celsius, and may have fever all the time, chills (especially in the early stages)
• Rapid and frequent breathing (panting)
• Red face, red lips, pellicle tongue
• Dry cough without sputum (in early stage), but it will have the sputum later (yellow, green, or bloody color).
• A sharp chest pain when breathing in or when coughing. Sometimes there may also be pain that refers to the shoulders, flanks, or abdomen. These conditions show in older, children, and adults.
• Abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, vomiting, restlessness, or convulsions found in young children. In sever cases, cyanosis, green lips, green tongue, and green fingernails may occur.

How to avoid pneumonia

         Although this disease can be cured, it can return whenever the body is weak. Therefore, prevention in the right way is an important thing that we all should not ignore. Moreover, how to reduce the risk of infection or disseminated pneumonia is

• Stay healthy.
• Keep clean and avoid crowded places.
• Eat food and supplements with high nutrition properly.
• Do not inject with an unsterilized syringe needle.
• Keep kerosene out of the reach of children.
• Prevent chronic lung disease (bronchitis, emphysema) with not smoking.
• In case the person at risk of disease is a child under 4 years old, they should be closely taken care and be careful about choke. Small toys should be keep out of reach of children to prevent children from taking it into their mouths.
• When you have a cold, influenza, measles, chickenpox, etc., you should take care of it early. If symptoms do not decrease, you should consult a medical professional as soon as possible.

For patients who have no symptoms of asthma, you should drink a lot of water, wipe yourself when you have a high fever, take fever-reducing medication and antibiotics. If the symptoms reduce in 3 days, antibiotics should be continued for another 1 week. If they do not decrease or have asthma, you should go to the hospital.

If you have asthma or another complication, you should take antibiotics and go to the hospital immediately. If you are not treated in time, you may die. If you have dehydration, saline should be given during the trip. Treatment usually requires chest x-ray examination, sputum examination for the pathogen cause, or draw blood for culture. The oxygen, saline and antibiotics will be given. Moreover, high doses of penicillin or other antibiotics might be intramuscularly or intravenously injected according to the type of infection.

In addition to pneumonia that is often found in the rainy season, Dengue fever must be careful as well. In the rainy season, there is always flooding. It is likely to be bitten by mosquitoes easily. If it is combined with a weak body with low immunity, it is even more dangerous to health. However, no matter what disease is, we should be careful and know how to take care of your health by eating good food, getting lots of rest, and thinking good things. It will make our body and mind happy and far from all diseases.

Thank you for the article from Vibhavadi Hospital