Lung infections are infections caused when a disease-causing microorganism affects your lungs. It can be a bacteria, virus, or fungi. It causes inflammation of the lungs, which causes difficulty breathing. Some symptoms include tightening the chest, fever, cough, and mucus secretion. It ranges from mild to most severe.
Lung infections can attack people of any age group. It affects the different parts of the airways causing bronchitis, pneumonia, and other conditions. It is a chronic condition, but you have lung infection medicine and treatment for all conditions. For that, you need to know the different types of infections. Let’s find out more about it:
Bronchitis
Bronchitis is an infection that affects your airways called bronchi. It causes inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes, which takes air in and out of your lungs. It is a viral infection found commonly affected most. People with bronchitis often cough up thick mucus. It can be both acute and chronic in condition. Acute bronchitis is commonly affected due to cold or other respiratory infections, whereas chronic bronchitis involves inflammation of the bronchial tubes. It is a severe condition often found in people with smoke. Acute bronchitis is more like a cold, treated within a week, yet the cold will keep affecting you. In case of chronic bronchitis, it needs proper medical treatment by a physician.
Bronchiolitis
It is an infection that affects the smaller airways’ bronchioles, causing difficulty breathing. It is a viral infection that affects most children. Children affected by bronchiolitis have the risk of developing asthma. It is a viral infection caused by influenza or rhinovirus. It is contagious and spreads from one person to another. In case of contact with the infected person’s respiratory droplets, it can affect them.
Influenza
The flu is an infection caused by the nose, lungs, and throat. It is one of the most common lung infections that are contagious. If a person infected by influenza coughs or sneezes, the droplets can affect others. It is mainly like a common cold with symptoms like fever, headache, sore throat, and cough.
Whooping cough
It is a contagious infection that affects your respiratory tract. It starts by affecting people with cough followed by shortness of breath. It commonly affects children and infants. The symptoms usually take one week to appear. It begins with a cold, and the symptoms get severe later.
Tuberculosis
It is a bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is contagious, where the germ spreads through the air. If you come in contact with the affected surface or breathe it, the infected air can cause tuberculosis. They can be both latent and active. Latent tuberculosis infections are where the germ enters your body but does not affect you. In active tuberculosis, the germ affects your body. It cannot be cured by lung infection antibiotics, as it needs proper treatment.
Pneumonia
It is an infection that affects the smaller airways called alveoli. It causes inflammation of the air sacs causing difficulty breathing. The symptoms can be mild to severe, depending on the age, cause of infection, overall health, and other factors.
Wrap up
Lung infections are often affected due to viruses, bacteria, or other organisms. It attacks different parts of your respiratory tract, which causes breathing problems. Children, infants, older people, and people with chronic conditions are at risk of these infections. There are treatments for the infections, and the most common is lung infection antibiotics. It is better to consult a physician and get better treatment.
