Pope Francis, who stays hospitalized, has bilateral pneumonia, the Vatican mentioned on Tuesday.
The time period merely means pneumonia in each lungs, mentioned Dr. James Musser, director of the middle for infectious ailments on the Houston Methodist Analysis Institute. He added that, with out analyzing a affected person, he couldn’t say something particular about his situation.
Basically, pneumonia is an an infection of the small airways of the lungs. Because the physique mounts an inflammatory response, small pockets within the lungs fill with immune cells; signs can embrace fever, cough and shaking chills. To diagnose the sickness, a physician usually asks the affected person to say an extended “e,” as if the individual had been singing. By way of a stethoscope, the “e” of a pneumonia affected person feels like an “a,” mentioned Dr. Paul Pottinger, a professor of infectious ailments on the College of Washington.
Most individuals with pneumonia get well properly at dwelling and don’t should be hospitalized. However for older folks, pneumonia will be “a lethal state of affairs,” infectious illness consultants mentioned.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medication and infectious ailments on the College of California, San Francisco, added that “the mortality fee goes up after age 85.” The pope is 88.
The almost certainly reason for pneumonia is an an infection brought on by a bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae, in line with Dr. Chin-Hong. “The No. 1, 2 and three reason for pneumonia is strep pneumonia,” he mentioned.
The sickness can reply to antibiotics, however micro organism can typically spill out of the lungs and into the remainder of the physique, leading to sepsis, a harmful state of affairs. A vaccine may help mitigate this sepsis danger however doesn’t stop the situation, Dr. Chin-Hong mentioned.
Dr. Pottinger famous that, though strep pneumonia can contain each lungs, it often is confined to at least one lobe of 1 lung. Most bilateral pneumonia, he mentioned, is brought on by viruses, together with influenza, or different micro organism. Different causes embrace respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., Legionella, mycoplasma and chlamydia, Dr. Pottinger mentioned.
He agreed with Dr. Chin-Hong concerning the doubtless gravity of the pope’s situation.
“It’s a very scary state of affairs,” Dr. Pottinger mentioned.