LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS

The lower respiratory tract is the lungs, and so it is much more serious if you get an infection in the LRT. An infection here is called pneumonia. This disease has to be treated.

There are a few ways of classifying pneumonia. You can classify it according to where it was acquired, so you would have:

1. Hospital acquired for example P. aeruginosa, which is found in compromised hosts.

2. Community acquired for example S. pneumoniae

3. Occupation acquired Chlamidia psittachi, which is transmitted from parrots and so is found in people who handle parrots.

While the above is an ok way to classify pneumonias, a better way is to classify them based on clinical manifestation because that helps you treat the disease better. There are still three categories:

1. Acute : we’ve already heard about S. aureus and Enterobacteria which can cause pneumonia, so we’ll focus on Streptococcus pneumoniae

2. Chronic : caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and atypical mycobacteria

3. Atypical : walking pneumonia caused by Chlamydia pneumoniae, Legionella pneumophilia, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Category: Medicine Notes