Archive for the ‘Respiratory’ Category

How to Prevent Pneumonia?

Monday, January 11th, 2010

To prevent the disease are advised to wash hands especially after changing diapers, from the toilet and before eating or preparing food.

pneumonia

Avoid excessive smoke, because tobacco damage the lung’s ability to prevent infection. So also with the vaccine, vaccine can help prevent pneumonia in children, the elderly and people with diabetes, asthma, lung, HIV, cancer or other chronic conditions:

Pneumococcal vaccine (Pneumovax, Prevnar) reduce the possibility of contracting pneumonia due to Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Flu vaccine to prevent pneumonia and other problems caused by the influenza virus. Should be given every year to protect against the new virus strain.
HIB vaccine prevents pneumonia in children from haemophilus influenza type b.
A drug called Synagis (palivizumab) is given to a child under 24 months to prevent pneumonia caused by respiratory syncytial virus.

On the other hand, if you have cancer or HIV, talk to your doctor about additional ways to prevent pneumonia and other infections.

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Pneumonia

Monday, January 4th, 2010

pneumoniaWhat is it?

Pneumonia is an acute inflammation of the lung, caused by infectious agents, but can also be caused by physical or chemical agents or inhaled or aspiration of gastric contents when the level of awareness is low or there is any disorder of swallowing.

We distinguish three categories:

  • Community-acquired pneumonia or community acquired: Occurs in people who have not been admitted to any institution.
  • Hospital-acquired pneumonia or nosocomial acquired during the hospital stay, even so called, those that occur within 10 days after hospital discharge.
  • Pneumonia in the immunocompromised host: We refer to them in those who show any degree of impairment of the immune system to facilitate the development of infection (diabetics, patients with cancer, chemotherapy, or liver cirrhosis patients infected with the AIDS virus ).

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