COVID and pneumonia may damage lungs: Key points on signs, precautions

COVID and pneumonia pose great risk to the health of the lungs. These diseases are primarily related to the respiratory tract, though COVID affects other body organs too.

Winter season harbors the conditions and pathogens that are responsible for spreading both these infections.

World Pneumonia Day: Know how to spot first signs of Pneumonia

While safety measures are essential, it is important to know about the signs and symptoms of the diseases so that medical remedy is taken on time and the progress of the diseases are checked early.

COVID can cause inflammation in the lungs and subsequently damage the cells and tissues that line the air sacs in the lungs. These air sacs are crucial to normal breathing and delivering oxygen to the blood. The damage to the air sacs clogs the lungs and sometimes hardens the walls of the sacs making it difficult to breathe.

In pneumonia the lungs are filled with fluid, get inflamed and disrupt the breathing ability of the person. But there are higher chances of surviving pneumonia in comparison to that which is induced by COVID.

In COVID pneumonia both the lungs are affected simultaneously. This leads to shortness of breath and is mostly serious in nature.

Pneumonia is a lung infection that causes inflammation in the air sacs inside the lungs. There are two types of pneumonia: regular pneumonia and walking pneumonia.

"Walking pneumonia, otherwise referred to as atypical pneumonia, are infections of the lung caused by atypical microorganisms. Bacteria which cause atypical pneumonia include Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia pneumoniae and legionella," says Dr. Viswesvaran Balasubramanian, Consultant Interventional Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, Yashoda Hospitals Hyderabad.

It is milder than the regular pneumonia and is mostly an informal way to address a pneumonia that is not severe enough to put a person to bed or hospitalized.

""Pneumonia in simple terms is an infection in the lungs. It can be caused by a variety of microbes like bacteria, viruses, and fungal organisms. Common symptoms will be fever, localized chest pain on deep breathing, cough with phlegm production, in severe cases it can cause breathlessness drop in blood oxygen levels and blood pressure. Early antimicrobial therapy is the key for uneventful recovery," says Dr. Sagar C, Pulmonologist, Narayana Multispeciality Hospital HSR Layout.

In general, atypical pneumonia tends to have milder symptoms than typical pneumonia. Most of them are associated with chills, coughs sometimes with bloody mucus, fever, which may be mild or high and shortness of breath, says Dr. Viswesvaran Balasubramanian.

Other symptoms may include chest pain that gets worse when you breathe deeply or cough, confusion, headache, loss of appetite, low energy, and fatigue, says Dr Balasubramaniam.

Muscle aches and joint stiffness, sweating and clammy skin may also be observed. Rarely patients may also report diarrhea, ear pain, eye pain or soreness and skin rashes, he adds.

Yes, COVID drives the risk of getting pneumonia. Of all the complications that arise due to COVID, pneumonia also counts. As per a 2020 research report, pneumonia is the most serious clinical presentation of COVID-19, although the majority of infected patients (80%) experience a mild disease without pneumonia or only mild pneumonia.

Though severity associated with COVID is reported less these days, the risk of diseases like pneumonia can not be ruled out entirely.

Yes, it is.

Everything related to COVID is highly transmissible and contagious. It can pass from one person to another through air droplets released through coughing, sneezing, breathing and even while speaking.

Therefore apart from wearing masks, one should also maintain physical distance from the infected person and avoid touching any open surface.