Did you get pneumonia even without obvious coughing? Beware of Silent Pneumonia
2023-12-20
The child did not have obvious cough symptoms, but when they went to the hospital for a lung CT scan, they found that they had pneumonia. Recently, this "silent pneumonia" has attracted public attention. Why does the cough develop into pneumonia when it is not obvious? Will the general population also experience similar situations? How to prevent the occurrence of "silent pneumonia"? Experts from Hunan Provincial People's Hospital provided detailed answers. The child thought they had accumulated food without burning or coughing, but unexpectedly, it was a lung infection. 34 year old Wang Na, the mother of two children, fell ill one after another during this period. Not long ago, 7-year-old Dabao was infected with Mycoplasma pneumoniae and recovered after 5 days of treatment; One year old Er Bao does not have a fever or cough, but her milk volume decreases and her mental state deteriorates. She occasionally experiences low fever or choking on milk, coughing, etc. She thought Er Bao had accumulated food. It was not until three days ago that Er Bao developed symptoms such as vomiting and shortness of breath that she went to the hospital for examination. As a result, the lung infection has become more severe. "In this case of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection, there were indeed some children who coughed inconspicuously or even did not have much fever. These children had no obvious abnormalities in lung auscultation, but imaging examinations showed pneumonia." Huang Han, Director and Chief Physician of the Children's Respiratory and Immunology Department of Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, said that pneumonia is caused by bacterial, viral, or Mycoplasma infection in the lungs, and clinical diagnosis of pneumonia is mainly based on lung imaging, The typical symptoms of pneumonia include fever, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, and lung signs, but not all patients will experience these signs. From an age perspective, babies under 1 year old have lower immunity and weaker cough reflexes. Even if there is inflammation in the airways, there is usually no obvious cough response, but rather a decrease in milk volume, decreased mental state, occasional fever or foaming at the mouth, choking on milk, coughing, shortness of breath, lips turning blue, and increased breathing. Any of the above can be a manifestation of infant pneumonia. From the perspective of infected pathogens, patients with viral pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia are more likely to experience symptoms such as coughing and sputum production; And for fungal pneumonia, coughing may not be the main symptom. In addition, the symptoms of pneumonia patients may vary depending on individual differences. Some patients may present with fever, fatigue, shortness of breath, etc., without coughing symptoms. When the condition worsens, patients may experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, and consciousness disorders. In short, cough and fever are typical symptoms of pneumonia, but not all pneumonia patients may experience fever and cough. Cough is a defense mechanism, but the degree of cough varies from person to person, and cough receptors are mainly distributed in the throat and large airways. Therefore, the main areas affected by bacteria, viruses, or mycoplasma vary, and the severity of coughing also varies. For example, Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection often affects the ciliated cells of the airway epithelium, and the toxin is also homologous to pertussis toxin, so cough is relatively heavy; Some viral pneumonia may affect the small airways, and wheezing symptoms are more prominent; Some bacterial pneumonia has obvious early alveolar inflammation, and coughing only worsens during the recovery period. Therefore, the most reliable criterion for diagnosing pneumonia in children under 5 years old is shortness of breath, which means that the breathing rate exceeds the corresponding age group's standard. For example, children under two months old should exceed 60 breaths per minute, children between two months and one year old should exceed 50 breaths per minute, and children between one and five years old should exceed 4 breaths per minute
Edit：GuoGuo Responsible editor：FangZhiYou
Source：gmw.cn
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