Pneumonia Case Study

I. INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Among the developing countries, infectious diseases are still one of the main health concerns. Here in the Philippines, the Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infection and Pneumonia is the second leading cause of morbidity (2012) and third leading cause of mortality (1998) in Filipinos, based on the Philippine Health Statistics Report from the Department of Health (FHSIS 2012; FHSIS 1998).

Pneumonia can be caused by several kinds of organisms and some of these typical pathogens are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus pneumoniae, and Moraxella catarrhalis. However, atypical pathogens like Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, and Legionella are also commonly implicated with pneumonia (PCPG CAP).

Pneumonia can be acquired from different settings. It can be acquired from the community or in a health-care setting (nosocomial) (WHO, 2007). A community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has been conventionally defined as pneumonia developing outside of the hospital setting, whereas nosocomial pneumonia pertains to infections acquired during hospitalization. And recently, nosocomial pneumonia has been further differentiated into 1.) ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) if pneumonia developed during the course of mechanical ventilation and 2.) hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) if infection

Nosocomial pneumonia comes second in the leading type of nosocomial infections and this account for approximately 10% to 15% of all hospital-acquired infections. And the incidence of nosocomial pneumonia is greatly increased for all patients in intensive care units (ICUs), where reported incidence in ranges from 12% to 29%.29 Patients receiving mechanical ventilation have a risk as much as 20-fold higher, with rates as high as 25% to 70%.1 and