HEALTH NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17221, 3 October 1927, Page 5

HEALTH NOTES.

PNEUMONIA.

NEGLECTED COMMON COLDS,

(Contributed by the Department

of Health.)

Pneumonia is a communicable disease characterised by a rapidly developing inflammation of the lungs. The inflammatory process is incited by bacteria, most often by one called the pneuumococcus. Early in the disease J large numbers of air cells, through i which in health the blood is supplied with oxygen, become filled with solid i or semi-solid material, so that air can Ino longer enter. The inflammation may extend to the pleura, the membrane covering the lungs, the result being a complicating pleurisy. The prominent ' symptom's—fever, laboured breathing, ' and pain—are due to the absorption of i poisons given off by the bacteria, to be j filling of the air cells and to friction between inflamed surfaces during the act of breathing. Cases of pneumonia are classified according to the distributions of the inflammatory process in the lungs. To understand this it is necessary to know that each lung is divided into two or three large sections called "lobes." These in turn are made up of smalt groups of air cells called "lobules," which surround and open into the smaller bronchial . tubes. In lobar pneumonia one or more entire lobes are involved. When apparently robust people in middle life are suuddenly stricken with pneumonia it is usually of this type. In lobular or bronchopneumonia the inflammatory process is scattered through the small lobules, with unaffected areas intervening. It is this type which occurs so frequently in infants and old people. The term "pleuro-pneumonia" is sometimes used to describe the condition existing when pneumonia is complicated, as it often is, by pleurisy. Contrbutory Causes.

Pneumococci are present in large numbers in the materia,! coughed up by a patient suffering from pneumonia, and if this infected material gains entarnce through the mouth and nose to the lungs of another person, he, too may develop pneumonia. Many persons, however, into whose mouths and noses pneumococci find their way, never contract the disease. A body in perfect health has the power of destroying the germs and resisting their poisons (toxins) unless they enter the body in overwhelming large numbers. Ordinarily it is only after the body's resisting power is reduced by some cause that pneumonia develops. Exposure to cold, overwork, loss of sleep, or dissipation, may temporarily lower \ vitality. Very often it is a neglected ! "common cold," which prepares the : body for invasion. In fact, the "cold" may be incited by the same germs which ultimately become responsible for the attack of pneumonia. The inflammation, beginning in the nose or • throat, if neglected, extends along the air passages until the bronchial tubes, and finally the lungs themselves, be- i come involved. I

Precautions. Although many persons have pneumonia and recover, the disease is sufficiently serious so that every reasonable effort should be made to avoid it and

■to protect others. Anyone who neglects a severe cold is inviting an attack of pneumonia. While influenza was epidemic physicians everywhere observed that people suffering from severe colds or attacks of true influeunza, who went to bed immediately and remained there until fully recovered, rarely developed pneumonia, states a New York medical bulletin. A person suffering from a cold and going about as usual is a greater source of danger to others, than the pneumonia patient who is confined to his bed and comes in contact with no one except his attendants.

Keep the patient in bed until allowed up by the physician. Keep the patient in a room apart from the rest of the family. Boil all dishes, handkerchiefs, towels, and washable bedding used by the patient before washing. Catch discharges from the nose and throat of the patient upon pieces of cloth which can be burned or boiled. Wash your hands with soap and water at once after caring for the patient.