The Vatican said Tuesday.
The term simply means pneumonia in both lungs, said Dr. James Musser, director of the Houston Methodist Institute's Center for Infectious Diseases. He added that he could not say anything specific about his condition without examining the patient.
Pneumonia is generally an infection of the small respiratory tract of the lungs. When the body reacts inflammatoryly, the small pockets of the lungs are filled with immune cells. Symptoms include fever, coughing and shaking chills. To diagnose the illness, doctors usually ask the patient to say a long “E.” Through the stethoscope, the “E” in pneumonia patients sounds like an “A,” said Dr. Paul Pottinger, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Washington.
Most people with pneumonia recover well at home and do not need to be hospitalized. However, for older people, pneumonia can be “fatal situation,” infectious disease experts said.
“The mortality rate increases after age 85,” said Dr. Peter Ching-Hong, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. The Pope is 88.
According to Dr. Chin-Hong, the most likely cause of pneumonia is an infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. “The first, second and third causes of pneumonia are streptococcal pneumonia,” he said.
The disease can respond to antibiotics, but bacteria can flow from the lungs into the rest of the organism, causing sepsis. The vaccine helps reduce the risk of this sepsis, but it does not prevent the condition, Dr. Qinghong said.
Dr. Pottinger said that both lungs can be involved in streptococcal pneumonia, but is usually limited to one lobe of one lung. He said most bilateral pneumonia is caused by viruses that include the flu and other bacteria. Other causes include respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, Legionella, mycoplasma, and chlamydia, Dr. Pottinger said.
He agreed with Dr. Ching-Hong about the possibility of gravity in the Pope's state.
“It's a very scary situation,” Dr. Pottinger said.
