Pneumonia Disease Process

Therefore, the disease process is a series of nature of a disease including infection, diagnosis, symptoms, and treatment. A disease process has several stages which include; infection, incubation or latency period, incubation applying to infectious diseases and latency to chronic ones. The next stages in the sequence are initial symptoms, then acute and the last is recovery if treatment is successful or death if it fails. The paper presents the pneumonia disease process outlining how it undergoes a series of natural changes while in the body of the host, a human being. The Infection Stage Pneumonia is a bacterial, viral or fungal lung infection which triggers an inflammation in the tiny air sacs called alveoli which then fill up with fluid or pus.

Records show that about 1 million people are treated for pneumonia, and another 50,000 die of the disease annually in United States, making the disease the highest common infectious death cause and the 6th common cause of death in the country (American Lung Association, 2015). Incubation Period The incubation period is between exposure to a disease and the onset of the symptoms and within which the pathogen establishes itself in the host. Therefore, it is that gap from pathogenic infection to actual appearance of disease symptoms. In pneumonia, the length of the incubation period is determined by factors like the kind of bacteria or virus which has caused pneumonia, age of the host and his/her overall health. The incubation period for organism causing pneumonia ranges from 1 day to 10 days and some include; Streptococcus pneumonia and Klebsiella Pneumonia with 1-3 days, a Respiratory syncytial virus with 1 to 4 days, Influenza virus with 18 to 72 hours and Mycoplasma Pneumonia which takes 2-10 days (Mani and Murray, 2012).

The receptor serves as the sensing component which monitors, receives information that change is occurring in the external or internal environment and receptors include mechanoreceptors and thermoreceptors. The control center also called integration center is the component which receives and processes the information from the receptor. The respiratory system and renin-angiotensin system are part of the control center. The effector component responds to the commands from the control center through either opposing or improving the stimulus thereby effecting change back to normal condition (Tellingen and Der Bie, 2009). It is this continuous process which works in order to restore and maintain homeostasis in the body. Other tests include Sputum test on the gunk coughed, a Pleural fluid culture which investigates the organism causing pneumonia, Chest computed tomography (CT) scan informs on the size of lung affected, Pulse oximetry measures the amount of oxygen is in blood and Bronchoscopy to investigate inside the lungs' airways (Tong, 2013) Pneumonia treatment depends on its cause, the severity of disease, the age of patient and immune condition.

Some treatment options include Antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia, Antivirals for viral pneumonia, Cough medications to treat coughing and aspirin or ibuprofen medications for symptoms relief. Hospitalization may be necessary for cases of fast breathing, unable to take oral medications, declined kidney function, hypertension and over 65 years (Tong, 2013). Recovery from Pneumonia also requires home remedies and lifestyle change like adequate rest, taking adequate fluids and completion of all prescribed medications. Pneumonia can be prevented through two vaccines namely; pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, or Prevnar and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, or Pneumovax. Pneumonia, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, and Early Immune-Modulator Therapy. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591. Korea Mani, C. S. van (2009). Respiratory System Disorders and Therapy: From a New, Dynamic Viewpoint.