Pneumonia Pneumonia is an infection in one or both lungs, the air sacs called the alveoli fill up with fluid and becomes inflamed (Mayoclinic, 2015). Pneumonia occurs when the immune system becomes weak from a prior infection or condition. The most common type of pneumonia that people get are caused by different types of germs. The germs that cause pneumonia are bacteria, virus, mycoplasma, and fungi. There …show more content…
Viral pneumonia, mycoplasma pneumonia, and fungi pneumonia have similar symptoms; the symptoms they all have in common are dry coughs, fever, shortness of breath, and fatigue. Usually the symptoms of viral, mycoplasma, and fungi pneumonia are mild but can be severe. Mycoplasma and viral pneumonia have a few different symptoms of their own apart from fungi pneumonia, but have a couple symptoms that are similar. The different symptoms that viral pneumonia causes apart from the other germs are similar to the flu, such as, a sore throat, muscle pain, and loss of appetite. The different symptoms that mycoplasma pneumonia cause are chest pain, loss of appetite, diarrhea, rash and a sore throat (American Lung Association, 2015). Bacteria pneumonia usually cause symptoms that are severe. Some of these symptoms are similar to those of viral pneumonia, mycoplasma pneumonia and fungi pneumonia. The symptoms similar to the other types of pneumonia are difficulty breathing, diarrhea, coughing, and developing a fever. Bacteria pneumonia also causes symptoms that the other types of germs don’t. The symptoms separating bacteria pneumonia from the rest are vomiting, excessive sweating, rapid breathing, rapid heart rate, and bluish tint to the lips and nails from a lack of oxygen to the blood. A person should see a physician when they are having difficulty breathing, any chest pain, persistent fever of 102 degrees or higher or persistent cough of pus (Mayoclinic, 2015). It is a more serious matter when older adults, young children, infants and those with chronic medical conditions are affected by pneumonia. When an older person is affected by pneumonia they tend to become confused and unaware of whats going on. Their temperature may be lower than normal (WebMD,