There is no disease nowadays that you cannot control after detecting it beforehand. Some of them are difficult to deal with but not hard enough to prevent if detected at the right time. Cold is a common factor but you may never know that the symptoms of common cold may actually be gruesome pneumonia symptoms. Therefore, whenever you feel that the winter bugs or the cold has grasped you, taking help of the doctors can help you get rid of the troubles or good.
Now, it will better to jump into the point. At first, we should better look at the factors behind pneumonia.
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What causes pneumonia?
Cold symptoms are common for pneumonia, which get followed by coughing, fever and other kinds of physical discomforts. You may even catch flu. However, common cold does not always cause pneumonia but it is certainly true that sometimes pneumonia symptoms match with infections related to severe cold.
Here, you can check out the early signs of pneumonia and if these signs match to your troubles, you should promptly meet the doctors.
For the record, it is better to mention that there are as much as 30 different factors that may cause pneumonia. Among those causes there are fungus infections, airborne irritants and viruses. When these menaces affect the lungs and beat the natural immune system of the body, the infected air sacs of the lungs get inflamed and eventually fill up with pus and fluid. This event eventually cause rigorous coughing, breathing troubles along with fever.
Pneumonia Symptoms:
If you are trying to figure out pneumonia symptoms, the following outcomes may help you a bit –
- Dry cough, which is persistent and eventually get worse at night
- Fever that starts with low-grade and eventually gains persistence, as your uneasiness grows
- Breathing troubles that may keep you awake at night
- Tiredness or fatigue that you cannot beat
- Chest pain or pain near the rib cages that grows with extensive cough
- You may experience loss of your appetite
Right here, confusion may grow regarding whether you have bronchitis or pneumonia. In the case of bronchitis, your air-pipes may get blocked due to infections. Pneumonia is not the form of severe bronchitis. Severe bronchitis may lead the infection to get spread in one or both of the lungs. On the other hand, bacteria or virus for pneumonia directly affect the lungs. However, in both the cases, you may experience heavy cough. For bronchitis, you may experience heavy cough with pus but the same may not happen for pneumonia. Certainly, the cough will be persistent and the other problems (as mentioned before) will follow.
Pneumonia symptoms among kids or babies
Pneumonia among children may be dangerous because their immune systems are not completely grown and eventually that may lead them to succumbing to the disease. The reports from WHO (World Health Organization) show that pneumonia can be held accounted for 16% of death of kids worldwide. Considering that you need to be a little cautious when handling your kids.
Kids can feel uneasiness with pneumonia but in their cases, the outcome may not be as same as the older people. They may not experience rigorous cough and fever all the times but the signs of infections will be more prompt among them.
If your kid gets mild pneumonia, you may find these pneumonia symptoms –
- Dry cough
- Mild fever
- Headache
- Fatigue that would make them nag over the hours
- Sore throat
- Nasal congestion
In the moderate pneumonia attack you may find your kids suffering from cough, sore throat, low-grade fever that may turn into high fever at some points. The rest of the outcomes may remain same as mentioned.
It will be wise for you not to neglect these symptoms and contact the doctors as soon as possible. However, sometimes these symptoms are neglected because viral pneumonia sometimes wards off on its own. Therefore, parents consider that the menace has gone for good. It is better to mention that if not treated properly, relapse of pneumonia is not surprising. Therefore, it would be better to take the suggestions of the medical practitioners, especially pediatricians if you find pneumonia symptoms in the kids.
Pneumonia diagnosis : What would happen if the kids get severe pneumonia?
In that case, you need to watch out your kid carefully. It may not be detected in the very beginning, if your kid is a little older. The pneumonia symptoms you will find among them are –
- High fever
- Sweating
- Blush tint to the lips, as well as nail tips
- Flushed skin
- Breathing troubles
Here, it is better to inform that if you have to deal with an infant, you may not get clear idea about pneumonia attack. However, here you can check out some of the specific conditions that may help you understand the cause of uneasiness in your infant or toddler:
- Pale appearance
- Being lethargic
- Crying continuously
- Not eating properly
- Restless
- Vomiting
How to treat pneumonia among the kids?
Any uneasiness in your kids must need proper attention by professional physicians. Rather than neglecting the uneasiness of the kids, it would be wise to take them to the physicians or pediatricians the moment you notice their uneasiness. There are several vaccines for the kids that may help them deal with pneumonia. Taking precaution would be wise for the kids because unless those precautions, they may suffer heavily from the illness which may even turn fatal.
In order to treat pneumonia among the kids, the pediatricians may prescribe antibiotics and other vaccines that will help them get rid of the troubles sooner.
Pneumonia diagnosis among adults
It is hard to diagnose pneumonia symptoms among the adults. Usually the symptoms of cold appear slowly. Usually you may feel that you have got common cold in a severe form. Eventually, you will experience fever, pain, as well as pressure around your chest while coughing. All these are common symptoms of severe cold, but at the same time, you need to know that you may experience all these issues while you get pneumonia.
Pneumonia will award your fever with headache, severe body aches and other symptoms that you may experience when you get flues. At the same time, you will experience fatigue and dry cough, alongside sore throat and low appetite. If you still do not go to the doctor by this time, consider yourself on the mercy of the disease, because it will become severe and make you suffer even more. You may also experience greenish or yellowish mucus while coughing. Since the moment you notice them, it would be wise to knock at the doors of the doctors.
Medications for pneumonia for adults
Based on the researches over the years, it has been found that pneumonia can be cured by proper medication unless it turns severe or the adult’s age-related issues pose a trouble on the path to recovery. Usually, antibiotics are prescribed after diagnosing pneumonia symptoms among the adults. The antibiotics can kill the bacteria or viruses and stop their growth. Penicillin antibiotics are also some good medications that can help people beat the activeness of the bacteria behind pneumonia.
When you plan to visit the doctor, you should consider taking your medical history and details alongside. You may need to go through some tests to ensure that the symptoms in your body are caused by pneumonia.
If you are an older person or an elderly one (aged over 65 years), you may need to be admitted in the hospitals for better treatment and to avoid all related risks. In this period, the doctors will prescribe you antibiotics according to your conditions. The doctors may prescribe you cough medicines and fever reducing medicines to control high fever as well.
What are the risks for which elderly people need hospitalization?
If an elderly person is affected by pneumonia, the person may suffer from the following troubles –
- Confused about the time, as well as the place where he or she is staying at
- Experience troubles related to kidney-dysfunction
- Drastic drop of heart rate and blood pressure
- Rapid breathing or heavy breathing troubles
- Drop of average body temperature
None of these problems appear normal and therefore, a person needs hospitalization if these pneumonia symptoms arise.
In order to check the gradual deterioration of your health, you need to keep yourself hydrated properly. At the same time, you need to take rest so that your health does not get worse over the period. This matter is equally applicable for the younger ones and the elders. At this time, the smokers should take a break from smoking because that habit will only worsen the situation over the period.
If you get pneumonia, you can meet specialists, especially lung specialists, primary care providers, as well as the respiratory therapists to help you get rid of the trouble. The experts will examine and let you know whether you have severe or acute pneumonia. Prior to the treatment, they will check you through the stethoscope to know whether there is any bubbling sound in your lungs. The doctors will ask you to go through chest X-ray as well. They will perform a pulse oximetry test as well, to measure the amount of oxygen in your blood.
The process of diagnosing pneumonia is almost same for both the kids and adults. However, detecting the pneumonia symptoms among kids is considerably tougher rather than the adults. Rather than wasting time, taking the suggestions from the experts in the very beginning may assure a quicker recovery in this regard.
