“Study of Bacteriological and clinical profile in community acquired pneumonia”

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains a common and serious illness despite the availability of potent new anti-microbial agents and effective vaccines. Two major variables that influence the spectrum of etiologic agent and initial approach to therapy are the severity of initial presentation and presence of either co-existing illness or advanced age. The bacteriological profile of community-acquired pneumonia is different in different countries and changing with time within the same country, probably due to frequent use of antibiotics, changes in environmental pollution, increased awareness of the disease and changes in life expectancy. Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) has an incidence of about 20% to 30% in developing countries compared to an incidence of 3% to 4 % in developed countries. In this study 200 cases of community acquired pneumonia The cases included were patients aged more than 14 years admitted to the Dept. of Medicine, Dr. BRAM Hospital, Raipur fulfilling the specified inclusion criteria. It was found that The incidence varies markedly with age, being much higher in the very young and the elderly. CAP is one of the common infections of the respiratory tract. It occurs in all age groups, but the incidence is more with advancing age and associated risk factors like smoking, COPD and alcoholism. Identification of the specific pathogen in acute bacterial pneumonia is necessary for rational and appropriate antibiotic therapy. Etiological agents cannot be identified in many cases because of prior use of antibiotics, inappropriate sputum production and non-productive cough. Undiagnosed cases of CAP can be diagnosed by applying serological methods if available, so that appropriate treatment can be given to reduce the morbidity and mortality in these patients. Empirical treatment has to be started for all the cases of CAP, till the culture report arrives. The empirical therapy should be based on the presumptive etiologic diagnosis developed from all available epidemiologic, clinical and laboratory data. Once the culture report is available, the treatment should be based on the drug to which the organism is most susceptible.