Everyone should know about how pneumonia is transmitted in adults and children. The disease is quite contagious, so you need to be able to protect yourself. Wisdom has long been known: the one who is warned is armed. By understanding what pneumonia is and how it spreads, you can minimize your own risks.
General view
Although the disease is quite easily transmitted in society, many do not know whether it is possible to get pneumonia from a sick person. A low level of education of the population provokes an increased incidence of morbidity. It is important to recognize the danger of infection due to the fact that pneumonia is difficult to tolerate, often provoking complications. The risk of death is quite high, especially if you do not start treating the disease on time.
Before delving into whether it is possible to get pneumonia, you should briefly consider the general provisions, that is, what the disease is. The term is used to denote a pathology in which organic tissue of the lungs is harmed. The cause of pneumonia is various pathogens that the immune system could not cope with. In order for dangerous microbes to enter the lungs, a number of favorable conditions are needed.
Causes and consequences
It is possible to understand whether pneumonia is transmitted to another person, if you understand what causes the disease. These are various pathological microscopic life forms: chlamydia, fungal cultures, microbes, mycoplasma, pneumocysts, dangerous bacteria. The variety is quite substantial, which leads to a high level of contagiousness of the disease - pathogens are transmitted from the carrier, an already ill individual to a healthy one.
The nuances of the spread of the disease in society are studied by several sciences. First of all, consider the approach of microbiology. Representatives of this discipline examine the respiratory distribution mechanism in which a person inhales an infected substrate sprayed in the surrounding area. Possible oral-fecal route of infection with food, liquid, dirty objects, objects. Studying how pneumonia is transmitted, symptoms, disease prevention, it was found that the spread of the disease with blood is possible. This happens when dirty needles, tools (cosmetic, medical) are used. There is a risk of infection by blood transfusion and infusion of solutions into a vein. Transmission of the disease with blood is possible through insects or through sexual intercourse.
Disease and transmission: continuing the topic
Finding out whether pneumonia is contagious and how it is transmitted, it was established that the pathogen can be transmitted from a sick individual to a healthy contact method. Such risks are with intimate contact, getting a wound.
Another way is vertical, when the fetus receives the pathogen through the placenta from the mother's body.
Some microscopic life forms are characterized by tropism to the lung tissue, which means that once they get into the respiratory system, they are more likely to provoke pathology. There are microbes that can initiate pneumonia only in combination with others.
Assess whether pneumonia is contagious to others and how it is transmitted in a particular case, revealing the microflora of the lungs. Based on epidemiology, one can predict how likely it is to infect other people.
Transmission ways
One of the tasks of modern medicine is to determine exactly how pneumonia is transmitted, what risk of infection is inherent in each specific case. Several transmission paths have been established. It is known that the chances of infection through food, that is, by the nutritional route, as well as by water, household and contact, are quite high. Among the fairly widespread ways of the spread of the disease, it is worth noting intrauterine, parenteral, vector-borne with the participation of insects. Pneumonia is transmitted by dust, contact, sexual, airborne droplets.
Specialists in pulmonology, figuring out whether pneumonia is contagious to others, children, have established several mechanisms of pathogenesis. It was clarified that infection is possible by inhalation of particles sprayed in the air to patients, in contact with blood, aspiration of mucus, and a penetrating wound located in the chest area. There is also a risk of the spread of inflammatory processes between different organs: for example, pneumonia can be a consequence of liver inflammation.
It's important to know!
Finding out how pneumonia is transmitted from person to person, scientists have determined for sure: most often the infection is due to the passage of mucous secretions with pathogenic microbes into the lower respiratory departments. Such processes occur constantly and are most active during night sleep. Normally, the immune system inhibits the vital activity of pathological life forms, so a person does not get sick. But if the immune status is reduced or insemination is extremely massive, pathogens penetrate the alveolar, bronchial mucosa, which leads to a severe inflammatory process, associated with a risk to life.
To get sick: are the risks great?
From the above it follows that the answer to the question of whether pneumonia is transmitted from person to person is certainly positive. Moreover, the transmission process itself is determined by the characteristics of microflora. From medical statistics it is known that most often the spread within society occurs in an aerogenic manner. Therefore, the main transmission route is airborne. They explain the main percentage of primary diseases when pneumonia develops against the background of a healthy state of other systems and organs.
Determining how pneumonia is transmitted from person to person, scientists also investigated cases of secondary pathology. At the moment there is no exact and uncontested opinion regarding the possibility of infection. If pulmonary inflammation is a complication of another infection process, then it acts only as a syndrome. In contact with a healthy individual, there is a risk of transmission of the pathogen, but the likelihood of damage to the pulmonary system in the new victim of bacteria is quite small.
Risks: large and small
Studying whether pneumonia is transmitted from person to person, doctors and scientists have found that the form of the disease, provoked by somatic health disorders, is not dangerous to others. You can not get infected from a person whose pneumonia is caused by heart failure, as well as from paralyzed persons. Pulmonary inflammation in these groups of patients is explained by stagnation in the respiratory system, which creates comfortable conditions for the active reproduction of potentially dangerous microbes.
Analyzing whether pneumonia is transmitted from person to person, it was also possible to establish which groups of people are more at risk of getting sick. It was revealed that, in contact with dangerous microbes, smokers with long experience, born babies, infants, diabetics, elderly people and women bearing the fetus are more likely to become infected. There are more risks of getting pneumonia in those who suffer from malignant neoplasms, weakened immune status, chronic pulmonary, heart diseases. Certain risks are associated with drug therapy, including cytostatics, hormonal anti-inflammatory. The dangers are greater for people with an addiction to alcohol, often suffering from SARS, bronchitis. There is a chance of getting sick amid severe hypothermia.
Home infection
Since scientists know whether pneumonia is transmitted from person to person (yes, it is transmitted), it is therefore confirmed that the probability of infection is higher with constant contact with the carrier of the infection, sick people (for example, in a hospital). But community-acquired infection - these are cases when the disease is received outside a specialized institution. As is known from statistics, the percentage of cases of pneumonia is quite high, in recent years, the disease is spreading more and more actively.
Among other forms, the most often provoked pneumo-, staphylococcus and hemophilic bacillus are found. For each type, the probability of transmission of the disease from the patient to a healthy person is evaluated individually.
Pneumococcal pneumonia
With this form, is pneumonia transmitted by airborne droplets? The answer to this question will be positive. It has been established that most often infection occurs precisely from a patient suffering from a pneumococcal variety of pathology. This pathological form of life is a typical provocateur of the croupous process. If the immune status is lowered, a high probability of bronchopneumonia.
It has been established that most often the transfer takes place within a close team. In such an environment, there are more opportunities for the microbe to spread through the air. If all members of the community know whether pneumonia is transmitted by airborne droplets (transmitted), this provokes being more knowledgeable and attentive to health - yours and those around you. It is known that very often pneumonia in such groups occurs during the flu epidemic.
Haemophilus influenzae as a provocateur of pneumonia
This form of the pathogen is more often established during the examination of children with pneumonia in children. Risk group - from two months to six years. There is a higher risk of getting this form in people suffering from chronic respiratory pathologies, as well as among smokers and people with low immune status.
You can get pneumonia provoked by a hemophilic bacillus only from a person. From a patient to a healthy pathological microflora is transmitted by an aerogenic mechanism. You can get sick by inhaling the air coughing up to the patient, as well as when talking with suffering pneumonia. If the patient sneezes, a cloud of sprayed mucus is created around him, dangerous for healthy people.
Staphylococcal pneumonia
In the body of any person there are staphylococci. They are useful in small quantities and live in symbiosis with humans. In case of malfunctions of the internal systems, destabilization of the immune system, pathological growth of such colonies is possible. One of the consequences of this is pneumonia. This form can also be infected by another person. It is known that the staphylococcal form of the disease is transmitted through the oral, fecal, airborne droplets, through dust and upon contact.
It should be remembered that staphylococcal pneumonia can be infected not only from humans, but also from animals. One source is mastitis cows. Eating contaminated milk provokes pneumonia.
Atypical pneumonia
In modern medicine, such cases designate all those in which pathogens differ from the microflora described above. The nature of the course of the pathology usually differs from the classical one. The transmission of the pathogen between people can occur in different ways and mechanisms. However, in any case, it should be understood: almost always the disease is contagious.
Atypical forms are usually caused by chlamydia, mycoplasmas or legionella. The first are intracellular life forms that cannot survive without the cells of the host organism. Infection occurs through the respiratory tract from the carrier or patient. A high level of susceptibility is characteristic of any age.
Continuing consideration
Mycoplasma is a fairly common microorganism in the environment. Infection with them is usually not accompanied by complications, but the treatment is delayed for a long time. The infection mechanism is airborne.
Legionella in high concentration are found in particularly humid places. You can get sick by inhaling air containing pathological microbes. Studies have shown that legionella often live in climate control systems, humidifiers, and inhalation devices.
Are they being treated or infected?
There is a risk of getting pneumonia if a person is admitted to a hospital. The source may be clinic staff or other patients, as well as equipment. Nosocomial infection is usually explained by anaerobic life forms, Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Escherichia coli, fungal colonies, pneumocysts, Klebsiella. More often, the disease develops in a bilateral form. The risks of infection are higher for those suffering from blood diseases or oncological diseases, for those who are prescribed immunosuppressive treatment, as well as for AIDS and drug addiction.