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Pneumonia and Pneumococcus by Julia Zackiewicz

Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death in the world, 25,000 in the U.S. alone. It causes about 500,000 to 800,000 North Americans to be hospitilized every year. Pneumonia is an inlamation or infection of the lungs. The lungs fill with liquids such as mucus. This prevents oxygen from reaching the blood. When there is insufficent oxygen in the blood, cells in the body weaken and die.

Pneumonia can attack anyone from infants to the eldery, but those who are at highest risk are 65 years of age or older. Children 2 years old and younger are also very vulnerable to the disease. Symptoms can be very sudden or gradual. Some include shaking chills, chattering, chest pain, severe cough, high temperature, quickened pulse rate, and bluish lips and nails.

The cause of Pneumonia is a bacteria called Pneumococcus, a bacteria carried by one third of the entire population. When a person's resistance is lowered, the bacteria invades the lung's tissues and then quickly spreads throughout the bloodstream. It eventually infects the whole body.

Pneumococcus, along with Pneumonia, can cause meningitis, septicaemia, ear infections, and blood stream infections. The bacteria is normaly carried in the nose and upper throat and may be spread through coughing and sneezing. In developing countries, as many as one in every ten deaths in young children attribute to this infection.

Doctors reccomend getting a vaccine for Pneumococcus to lower the risk of the diseases it causes. Studies show that the new vaccine developed is 90% effective against all strains of the bacteria. At one time, some drugs such as Pennicilin were effective in treating Pneumococcus related diseases, butantibiotic resistant forms of the bacteria are slowly becoming more common. This situation makes the prevention of the disease, through vaccines, even more important.