PNEUMONIA – TYPES OF PNEUMONIA
Pneumonia due to other germs may not respond as readily to treatment. The staphylococcus is notorious for becoming immune to antibiotics almost as fast as new ones become available.
Staphylococcal pneumonia, especially as a complication of influenza may be rapidly fatal.
Mycoplasma is a germ midway between a bacterium and a virus and can cause many respiratory infections.
Mycoplasma are not affected by penicillin but are sensitive to other antibiotics.
Bronchopneumonia usually follows infection in the bronchial tubes, and inflammation is widespread and patchy throughout both lungs. It occurs most frequently in children and in the elderly and is usually secondary to some other condition, such as measles or whooping cough in children.
In the elderly, it may develop in those weakened and bed-ridden and is often the final cause of death in the frail elderly confined to bed. Therefore, bronchopneumonia has been called the old man’s friend.
It was often called “double pneumonia” because, unlike lobar pneumonia, it involved both lungs.
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