Effective Treatment And Preventive Measures For Pneumonia Infection In Nigeria

Pneumonia is amongst the most common illnesses that are treated in Nigerian hospitals.

It can be best described as Alveoli, which is a term used when an infection enlarge one or both lungs, which can be filled with a dischargeable fluid, which can cause fever, chills or a cough or even difficulty in breathing.

 

Symptoms of pneumonia

The symptoms of pneumonia can range from mild to life threatening and the most common symptoms are the following:

• Coughing that may produce mucus
• Sharp or stabbing chest pain
• Extreme fever with cold symptoms
• Difficulty in breathing

And it is worthy to note that the signs and symptoms vary amongst adults and children and the general health of individual.

 

Causes of pneumonia

Primarily, germs are the major cause of pneumonia and invariably, there are major types of pneumonia with alternate causes of infection, they are:

• Bacteria pneumonia
• Viral pneumonia
• Fungal pneumonia
• Mycoplasma pneumonia

 

Medical investigations

Medical investigations are carried out based on the symptoms and the following laboratory methods are adopted:

• Physical examination
• Chest x-ray
• Blood tests
• Culture of the sputum.

And these findings are necessary in order to commence treatment of the illness for an effective result.

 

Treatment

Due to the alarming effect of this illness on the lives of about 1 in 20 Nigerians and about 6.7 million cases annually, there has been an adequate and effective measure put in place to help treat and prevent pneumonia in the country.

The effective intervention for this illness in Nigeria was first, through the production of local dispersible amoxicillin tablets which can be gotten from local pharmacy stores and is effective for both children and adult, and secondly through the initiation of PCV which is called pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

PCV is effective for all commonest types of pneumococcal diseases and to make sure this is yielding, it was adopted into the routine immunization system in 2014.

Normally, the treatment of pneumonia infection depends on the underlying cause and pneumonia believed to be caused by the bacteria is treated with antibiotics and the one believed to be caused by virus is subjected to antiviral drugs, while the type caused by fungi is treated with antifungal drugs and oxygen therapy may be used if oxygen levels are low.

 

Preventive measures

In as much as vaccines are available for treatment and prevention of certain types of pneumonia and also added also an added advantage to observe other preventive methods such as:

• Washing of hands
• Quitting cigarette smoking if a smoker
• Covering your mouth while coughing and sneezing

Pneumonia being one of the leading cause of death due to infection in children and older adults in Nigeria, calls for cautionary steps, as early medical treatment minimizes the dangers associated with such illness.