Community-acquired Pneumonia
Community-acquired pneumonia [5] (synonyms: outpatient pneumonia) is an acute outpatient disease followed by of lower respiratory tract infection symptoms (fever, cough, chest pain, shortness of breath). It means that the disease was acquired in a place other than the hospital.
The reasons for the development of an inflammatory reaction in the respiratory parts of the lungs can be both a decrease in the effectiveness of the body’s defense mechanisms and the massive dose of microorganisms and/or their increased virulence. Aspiration of the contents (fluid, vomit, or blood) into the oropharynx is the main route of infection of the respiratory parts of the lungs, and therefore the main pathogenetic mechanism of the development of pneumonia.
The etiology of community-acquired pneumonia is related directly to the amount of normal microflora that colonizes the upper respiratory tract. Of the numerous microorganisms, only a few with increased virulence are capable of causing an inflammatory reaction when they enter the lower respiratory tract.
These typical causative agents of community-acquired pneumonia are:
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Streptococcus pneumoniae;
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Haemophilus influenzae.