Non-severe community-acquired pneumonia

Non-severe community-acquired pneumonia

A.A. Zaitsev

Main Military Clinical Hospital named after N.N. Burdenko, Moscow

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), pneumonia and influenza firmly hold the 3rd place in the list of the main reasons of fatal outcomes worldwide achieving more than 3 million deaths annually. Adding that, a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) was also the cause of the death of 2.5 million people in a year. Both in pneumonia and COVID-19, the mortality rate among elderly patients, especially patients with comorbidities (for example, patients with COPD, diabetes mellitus, chronic heart failure, malignant neoplasms, etc.) significantly exceeded the mortality rate among young and middle-aged patients without concomitant diseases. This article presents current issues concerning diagnosis and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia from the standpoint of national recommendations. The most important sections relate to the issues of lung damage in the framework of influenza and coronavirus infection, as well as the possibilities of disease diagnosing and the role of biomarkers related to inflammation. A significant place is given to the choice of empirical antimicrobial therapy for non-severe community-acquired pneumonia. The problem of increase in the number of strains resistant to antibiotics was also discussed. The inappropriate use of antibiotics, such as macrolides, beta-lactam antibiotics, and quinolones, is a well-known predisposing factor for the formation of resistance to them, especially in pneumococci.

Keywords: community-acquired pneumonia, antimicrobial therapy, antibiotics, clinical recommendations, resistance, pneumococcus.

For citation: Zaitsev A.A. Non-severe community-acquired pneumonia. RMJ. 2021;3:19–23.