{"id":225951,"date":"2025-02-20T14:53:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T19:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=225951"},"modified":"2025-02-20T14:53:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T19:53:02","slug":"what-to-know-about-pneumonia-as-pope-francis-is-hospitalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/02\/what-to-know-about-pneumonia-as-pope-francis-is-hospitalized\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Know About Pneumonia as Pope Francis Is Hospitalized"},"content":{"rendered":"

So far, 2025 has been the winter of respiratory ailments, with influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) making up three-fourths of what some are referring to as the \u201cquademic.\u201d But one we haven\u2019t heard relatively much about is pneumonia.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Mark Metersky is chief of UConn Health\u2019s Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOne in approximately five patients who develops pneumonia ends up in the hospital in this country,\u201d says Dr. Mark Metersky<\/a>, chief of UConn Health\u2019s Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re hearing more about it now, with Pope Francis in an Italian hospital and reported to have bilateral pneumonia, meaning pneumonia in both lungs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPneumonia is often on both sides, not always, but the more lobes that are involved, the more lung tissue that\u2019s involved, the more serious it is, on average,\u201d says Metersky, who is a coauthor of the American Thoracic Society\u2019s guidelines for pneumonia diagnosis and treatment, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine<\/em> in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPneumonia itself refers to an infection of the lower respiratory tract – so, the lungs themselves – whereas typical viral respiratory organisms usually cause upper respiratory symptoms — so runny nose, congestion, sometimes sinusitis, sore throat, even a cough,\u201d says Dr. Lisa Chirch<\/a>, UConn Health infectious disease physician.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Lisa Chirch is an infectious diseases physician at UConn Health. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flu, RSV, COVID-19, and bronchitis can lead to pneumonia, as well as upper respiratory problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of influenza circulating right now, and people with flu can then develop bacterial pneumonia on top of the viral infection, which puts them at higher risk,\u201d Chirch says. \u201cLower respiratory tract infections more typically are caused by bacteria than are upper respiratory tract infections. There are certain bacteria that are often most problematic. Streptococcus<\/em> pneumoniae<\/em>, otherwise known as pneumococcus, which is vaccine preventable, is most common.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the pneumococcal vaccine<\/a> for adults 50 and older, children younger than 5, and anyone considered at increased risk for pneumococcal disease. The vaccine is not seasonal and offers protection for several years. Chirch says there are nuances to the vaccine schedule because the pneumococcal vaccine is available in multiple versions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on the timing of your last pneumococcal vaccine, you may be eligible to receive a newer one,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

We also can protect ourselves from pneumonia by keeping current on other vaccinations, including influenza and RSV \u2014 ideally in the fall, though it\u2019s still not too late for those to be helpful this winter and spring \u2014 and by following the CDC recommendations on COVID-19 vaccine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Metersky published a paper in the journal Chest<\/em> in 2012<\/a> showing that half the people who die within 30 days of being hospitalized with pneumonia die after leaving the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them are complications related to pneumonia, some of them are complications related to their underlying disease that made them at risk for pneumonia, so it\u2019s a combination,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Other contributors to pneumonia risk include smoking, diabetes, alcohol use, opioid dependence, and benzodiazepine use (drugs similar to Valium).<\/p>\n

For those dealing with bacterial pneumonia at home, especially an older person with other health problems, Chirch recommends monitoring closely for fever and other symptoms like worsening cough and difficulty breathing, at which point, hospitalization may be appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch for high-grade fevers, chills, shortness of breath, feeling more winded just walking around the house, severe cough, chest pain, things like that,\u201d she says. \u201cFrom my perspective, probably the most concerning things would be difficulty breathing and high fever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once in the hospital, \u201cthe mainstay is antibiotics and supportive care, so antibiotics, fluids, electrolytes, if they need it, oxygen, if they need it, a ventilator if they\u2019re really severe, but the key thing is antibiotics,\u201d Metersky says. \u201cUnfortunately, many pneumonias are viral, and for most of these viruses, we don\u2019t have any treatment. So, it\u2019s really supporting them until they improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Learn more about pulmonary medicine and critical care at UConn Health.<\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more about UConn Health\u2019s Infectious Diseases Division.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn Health experts say vaccinations \u2013 not just pneumococcal \u2013 are key to avoiding serious illness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":225953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,1868,2235,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-225951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-meds","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 09:16:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225951"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225961,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225951\/revisions\/225961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/225953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225951"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=225951"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=225951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}