What is Pneumonia?
Pneumonia : an infection in one or both of your lungs that can be caused by several kinds of germs, such as: Bacteria; viruses; fungi (molds) (uncommon). It can have more than 30 different causes.
Approximately one-third of the pneumonia cases in the United States each year are caused by respiratory viruses. These type of viruses are the most common cause of pneumonia in children and young adults.
The flu virus is the most common cause of viral pneumonia in adults. Some viruses that cause pneumonia include respiratory syncytial virus, herpes simplex virus, rhinovirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus and many more.
How Does Pneumonia Affect Your Body?
Most of the time, your nose and airways filter germs out of the air you breathe. And it keeps your lungs from becoming infected. But germs sometimes find a way to enter the lungs and cause infections.
This is more likely to occur when:
- Your immune system is weak.
- Germ is very strong or present in large amounts.
- Your body fails to filter germs out of the air you breathe.
When the germs that cause pneumonia reach your lungs, the lungs’ air sacs (alveoli) become inflamed and fill up with fluid. This causes the symptoms of pneumonia, such as a cough, chills, fever, and hardly breathing.
When you have pneumonia, oxygen may have trouble reaching your blood. There is only too little oxygen in your blood, your cells of the body can’t work properly because the infection now spreading through the body and now the pneumonia can cause death.
Pneumonia affects your lungs in two separate ways. The one part, or lobe, of your lung is called lobar pneumonia. It may be widespread with patches throughout both lungs, which is called bronchial pneumonia (or bronchopneumonia).
