Pneumonia is the leading single cause of death in children globally, killing nearly 1 million children under the age of 5 each year, and in Mexico, more than 127,000 new cases of pneumonia and bronchopneumonia were diagnosed in 2021, while more than 57,000 people died from pneumonia in 2020 and influenza.
Pneumonia is the result of a respiratory infection that inflames the lung sacs, which may fill with fluid or pus, causing difficulty breathing, coughing up phlegm or pus, and a runny nose, and can be fatal if left untreated.
If symptoms such as fever, chest pain, sore throat, green or yellow discharge occur, you need to seek medical attention.
These symptoms can be confused with allergies, which also tend to occur due to seasonal changes, so it is necessary for people to seek medical evaluation and avoid self-medication to prevent complications; “Pneumonia causes the air sacs to fill with fluid or pus,” IMSS Mexico explains Edgar Roberto Ramírez Olivares, Director of the Family Medicine Section (UMF) No. 47 of the Social Security Institute.
He called for timely prevention and treatment of respiratory diseases that may complicate and develop into pneumonia. In view of winter, to avoid respiratory illness, people are advised to stay warm, avoid shaking hands or kissing, drink plenty of fluids, get vaccinated against flu and COVID-19, and cover up with a handkerchief. Cover yourself when you sneeze or are indoors, and how to wash your hands frequently, clean and disinfect handles, phones or shared items to reduce the risk of infection, and if you are physically active outdoors, do this between 12:00 and 17:00, It’s when the weather is not too cold.
The most vulnerable groups are girls and boys under 5 years old, the elderly, pregnant women and people with chronic diseases.
The advice they put forward is to try to eat foods containing vitamin C, cover your nose and mouth when you cough, don’t go to crowded places often, and avoid going out in overly cold climates, especially for the elderly. people and the elderly. Infants must take more extreme measures to avoid infections and syndromes, namely the simultaneous occurrence of influenza and COVID-19, which poses a greater risk to the health of the population.