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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“Pneumonia: An Infection of the Lungs.” Cdc.gov. 7 February 2014. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 23 March 2014 .
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The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) was used to find peer-reviewed articles, using query terms such as: aspiration pneumonia, ventilator, and prevention. In addition, the TWUniversal search engine was utilized to find peer-reviewed articles, with the key words: aspiration pneumonia, ventilator, and enteral.
Pneumonia is an infection that causes the air sacs in one or both of the lungs to become inflamed. These air sacs are responsible for gas exchange. When they are filled with fluid or pus this causes a cough and difficulty of breathing. Many things such as aspiration, a prolonged hospital stay, bacteria, fungi, or viruses including the common cold can cause pneumonia. Some of the risk factors for developing pneumonia are age greater then 65, weakened immune system, smokers, chronic diseases, or people who have been placed on a ventilator. Complications of pneumonia are getting bacteria in the blood stream, lung abbesses, fluid accumulation in the lungs, or getting poor oxygenation. The signs to look for are fever, sweating, cough, thick mucous, chest pain, and shortness of breath, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches or a headache. Treatment includes antibiotics, antiviral medications, fever reducers, and cough suppressants. The question I’m researching today is does head of the bed elevation of 45 degrees vs supine position prevent aspiration and the development of pneumonia in ventilator dependent patients?
Peters-Golden, M. Pneumonia (Chapter 15). 2010. Breathing in America:Diseases, Progress, and Hope: p.155. Retrieved from http://www.thoracic.org/education/breathing-in-america/resources/chapter-15-pneumonia.pdf
Rhinovirus - The Common Cold Introduction: Rhinovirus, pictured above, is best known as the common cold. It is a member of the picornaviridae family along with more virulent viruses such as polio and hepatitis A. The viruses of this family are characterized as small (20-30nm genome) positive polarity RNA viruses consisting of one genome segment and a nonenveloped capsid. Unlike the more lethal relatives, Rhinovirus is designed to attack a host numerous times during their lifetime. It is the perfect pathogen.
Liam is a previously healthy boy who has experienced rhinorrhoea, intermittent cough, and poor feeding for the past four days. His positive result of nasopharyngeal aspirate for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) indicates that Liam has acute bronchiolitis which is a viral infection (Glasper & Richardson, 2010). “Bronchiolitis is the commonest reason for admission to hospital in the first 6 months of life. It describes a clinical syndrome of cough tachypnoea, feeding difficulties and inspiratory crackles on chest auscultation” (Fitzgerald, 2011, p.160). Bronchiolitis can cause respiratory distress and desaturation (91% in the room air) to Liam due to airway blockage; therefore the infant appears to have nasal flaring, intercostal and subcostal retractions, and tachypnoea (54 breathes/min) during breathing (Glasper & Richardson, 2010). Tachycardia (152 beats/min) could occur due to hypoxemia and compensatory mechanism for low blood pressure (74/46mmHg) (Fitzgerald, 2011; Glasper & Richardson, 2010). Moreover, Liam has fever and conjunctiva injection which could be a result of infection, as evidenced by high temperature (38.6°C) and bilateral tympanic membra...
...for pneumonia, 6 million cases of otitis media, and 60,000 cases of invasive disease, which included 3300 cases of meningitis. Incidence in the U.S. showed geographic variation from 21 to 33 cases per 100,000 people. Interestingly enough, Alaska native adults have an 8 times higher disease rate and Alaskan infants a 4 times higher rate than the benchmark U.S. community. This statistic is indicative of how the organism is spread, because S. pneumoniae is spread by aerosol droplets, from person to person. The fact that Alaskan’s must remain indoors and live in crowded conditions and poor ventilated homes, increases the transmission and therefore the incidence of S. pneumoniae in this area.
Pneumonia is a lung infection caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi that inflame the air sacs in the lungs and can causes them to fill with fluid or pus. This can cause coughing, a build up of phlegm, difficulty breathing, fever, and chills. It is most serious if infants and young children, people over the age of 65, and those with a low immune system contract it. (Mayo Clinic Staff; Pneumonia definition)
Ventilator-associated pneumonia is the most common and deadly healthcare associated infection, affecting up to 28 percent of ventilated patients. VAP is estimated to occur is 9-27 percent of all mechanically ventilated patients, with the highest risk being early in the course of hospitalization. VAP rates range from1.2 to 8.5 per 1000 ventilator days and are reliant on the definition used for diagnosis. Early onset VAP is defined as pneumonia that occurs within four days and this is
Community acquired pneumonia (CAP), caused by viruses, ‘typical’ respiratory bacteria (as Streptococcus pneumoniae) or ‘atypical’ respiratory bacteria (as Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae) is a frequent local infection in childhood (39). Pneumonia is the important cause of fatality for children around the world, accounting for about 30 percent of all childhood death. A particular pathogen is not identified in most cases, but both viruses, mainly respiratory syncytial and influenza virus, and bacteria, especially S. pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae, are significant pathogens(40). Numerous bacteria and viruses and their mixtures can cause this infection, but there is an absence of speedy and commercially accessible diagnostic
Pneumonia can also become a hospital acquired infection. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a type of lung infection that occurs in a person who has been on a ventilator.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Most of the infections seen today are from H. influenzae and it is the most clinically relevant (lecture 1, slide 30).
C. pneumoniae was first discovered in the 1960's studies for trying to prevent a bacterial eye infection. By the early 1980's it was isolated from a respiratory culture. When first isolated it was thought to be a virus. Eventually scientists found out that it is atypical due to how different it is from other types of pneumonia. Due to the fact that it is atypical the most common types of antibiotics used to treat pneumonia don’t work on c. pneumoniae.
It is imperative to be aware when elderly has been diagnosed with pneumonia, depending on severity it is essential to treat and prevent it. Pneumonia is inflammation in lung result by infection, bacteria, fungi, and virus, and described as lungs with fluid or pus causing cough with phlegm. There are two categories of pneumonia for elderly that will be discussed, community-associated pneumonia (CAP), and healthcare associated pneumonia (HAP). Why older people are susceptible and high risk to pneumonia and what are signs and symptoms that they should look after. Proper assessment to treat pneumonia and how to prevent it is necessary, since there is also confirmation that it lasting impact to elderly. Now, pneumonia in elderly people is the one of the leading cause of hospitalization depending on severity either mild or serious it
November 16 2002, A farmer in Guangdong province within southeastern China, entered a local hospital with an illness that was believed to be an extreme case of atypical pneumonia. Later, more and more patients begin arriving at hospitals across the globe with a serious illness that displayed all the signs and symptoms of what could have been atypical Pneumonia. The only difference was that these pneumonia cases were suddenly more severe than most cases throughout history. Soon after, these flu-like cases caught the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO). Due to the severity of these cases and how furiously infection took over, WHO established a global alert to all hospitals to be aware of a severe form of pneumonia that appears to
Pneumonia is a respiratory infection that develops in the lungs. This can be a fungus, bacteria or virus that is located in one or both lungs and can be life threatening when left untreated. It can be very devastating to children that suffer from the lack of resources, doctors and proper treatment. In poverty stricken areas pneumonia can lead to further disease and created more problems for the people.