Viral Pneumonia in Premature Babies

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Visualize a premature newborn, attached to machines pumping oxygen and medication, simply due to being diagnosed with a debilitating disease known as viral pneumonia. The baby now has to undergo several expensive treatments in order to survive. Many premature babies and their parents undergo these procedures on a day-to-day basis. Viral pneumonia is an inflammation of the lungs due to a harmful virus (Benson 74). There are many catastrophic causes and symptoms of viral pneumonia in premature babies, the disease can be cured with treatment and proper prevention.
Knowing the background information of viral pneumonia is vital in treating the disease in premature babies. Two scientists, Hippocrates and Maimonides, discovered pneumonia between 450 B.C. and 380 B.C as well as in the early nineteenth century. Hippocrates discovered pneumonia, but knew very little about it. On the other hand, Maimonides knew more about pneumonia and described it more thoroughly than Hippocrates. He described pneumonia as a disease causing acute fever, sticking pain in the side, short rapid breaths, and jagged pulse and cough (Meeks and Heit 492). “Viral pneumonia occurs more in young children than older adults because the bodies of young children have a harder time fighting off the virus and it is often caused by one of the several viruses: adenovirus, influenza, parainfluenza, and respiratory syncytial virus” (“Viral Pneumonia”). Viral pneumonia develops in children in about five to seven days, but bacterial pneumonia is more severe (McKenzie and et. al. 396). “Pneumonia affects approximately four million individuals each year. It is the most common cause of infectious death in the United States” (Neighbors and Jones 162). Viral pneumonia occ...

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