Pneumonia

What are the signs and symptoms of Pneumonia ?

Pneumonia is a lung infection that can be caused by different types of germs, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. Although different types of pneumonia tend to affect children in different age groups, pneumonia is most commonly caused by viruses.

Viruses that cause pneumonia include adenoviruses, rhinovirus, influenza virus (flu), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and parainfluenza virus (which causes croup).

Incubation - The incubation period for pneumonia varies, depending on the type of virus or bacteria causing the infection (for instance, respiratory syncytial virus, 4 to 6 days; influenza, 18 to 72 hours).

Duration - With treatment, most types of bacterial pneumonia can be cured within 1 to 2 weeks. Viral pneumonia may last longer. Mycoplasmal pneumonia may take 4 to 6 weeks to resolve completely.

Contagiousness - The viruses and bacteria that cause pneumonia are contagious and are usually found in fluid from the mouth or nose of an infected person. Illness can spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes on a person, by sharing drinking glasses and eating utensils, and when a person touches the used tissues or handkerchiefs of an infected person.

Often pneumonia begins after an upper respiratory tract infection (an infection of the nose and throat). When this happens, symptoms of pneumonia begin after 2 or 3 days of a cold or sore throat.

Symptoms of pneumonia vary, depending on the age of the child and the cause of the pneumonia. Common symptoms include:

• fever
• chills
• cough
• unusually rapid breathing
• breathing with grunting or wheezing sounds
• labored breathing that makes a child's rib muscles retract (when muscles under the rib cage or between ribs draw inward with each breath)
• vomiting
• chest pain
• abdominal pain
• decreased activity
• Loss of appetite (in older kids) or poor feeding (in infants)
• In extreme cases, bluish or gray color of the lips and fingernails
  Sometimes a child's only symptom is rapid breathing.

Sometimes when the pneumonia is in the lower part of the lungs near the abdomen, there may be no breathing problems, but there may be fever and abdominal pain or vomiting.

When pneumonia is caused by bacteria, an infected child usually becomes sick relatively quickly and experiences the sudden onset of high fever and unusually rapid breathing. When pneumonia is caused by viruses, symptoms tend to appear more gradually and are often less severe than in bacterial pneumonia. Wheezing may be more common in viral pneumonia.

Some types of pneumonia cause symptoms that give important clues about which germ is causing the illness. For example, in older kids and adolescents, pneumonia due to Mycoplasma (also called walking pneumonia) is notorious for causing a sore throat and headache in addition to the usual symptoms of pneumonia.

In infants, pneumonia due to chlamydia may cause conjunctivitis (pinkeye) with only mild illness and no fever. When pneumonia is due to whooping cough (pertussis), the child may have long coughing spells, turn blue from lack of air, or make a classic "whoop" sound when trying to take a breath.

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