Hypothermia as a cause of pneumonia
Hypothermia occurs when the body temperature falls below the normal 36.5 to 37 degrees. In many people, hypothermia is caused by an accident at the water and at low outside temperatures or in the mountains, often in winter. Also drunk people and especially homeless people who cannot stay in a heated room often become victims of hypothermia.
The hypothermia lowers the immune system considerably. This means that it can no longer work so well. The immune system is normally there to protect our body to a large extent from invading bacteria, fungi and viruses.
The more pronounced it is, the less often we fall ill or a disease appears visibly. Sometimes the body fights the pathogens silently. If people are now hypothermic, the effectiveness of the immune system also decreases drastically.
The main cause of pneumonia is bacteria. But viruses and fungi can also cause it. Now these pathogens can penetrate the body much more easily and have to expect much less resistance. In this way one can get pneumonia after hypothermia.
Causes in children/baby
Especially small children and babies are very susceptible to pneumonia. Here again the not yet so pronounced immune system is often to blame.In addition, it is often overstretched in childhood when diseases spread in kindergarten or elementary school. Pathogens can penetrate the small bodies far too easily and cause pneumonia.
In children and babies, however, there are different pathogens than in adults that cause pneumonia. Among the most important and most frequent are the bacteria of Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenzae type b and the pneumococci. The former occur practically everywhere in nature and also live on warm-blooded creatures on the skin and mucous membrane and in the upper respiratory tract.
They also occur in food and water. If the immune system is not yet so developed or weakened, these bacteria take over and can penetrate the body. The bacterium of Haemophilus influenzae type B usually occurs in the first 5 years of life and can cause very severe respiratory diseases.
However, there is a vaccination against it. Pneumococci are also very dangerous bacteria that can cause serious diseases, especially in the respiratory tract, but also meningitis and otitis media. Mostly they are passed on by droplet infection.
This is also a certain risk when the children first attend kindergarten. But there is also a protective vaccination against these bacteria. In addition, a foreign body aspiration can lead to a local inflammatory reaction due to pathogens on the foreign body. The reason for swallowing is that the swallowing act is not yet sufficiently developed.
