The guardian., 1940-02-03
THE PEOPLES HEALTH
By Samuel 9. PavIo, MD.
LOBAR PNEUMONIA
(Continued)


childhood, especially until the age of
six years, but diminishes in frequency
as the child grows older. Males are
more often affected than females
probably because man, as a bread
winner, is more exposed to hardship
and to sudden changes in temperature.
People living in crowded tenement
houses are more liable to get sick
with pneumonia than those who live
in single, well heated and ventilated
houses. Undernourished and people
who are not dressed warm enough
during the winter months are apt to
contract the disease. Alcoholics are
FREQUENT victims of pneumonia.
The frequency of the attacks of
pneumonia and the higher mortality
rate among colored people as com
pared with white people is due en-
tirely to economic conditions and not
to any inferior resistance as MANY
medical text books state If anything.
the reverse is the truth. The Incl
dence of illness and mortality rate
would have been twice as large if the
white people would be obliged to live
under the conditions in which the col
ored people are forced to live.
The pneumOcOccus on entering the
lungs causes inflammation, an out
pouring of blood into the alveoli (air
sacks) of the lungs. Later a tremen-
dous amount of a thread-like sub
stance-ibrin is deposited in these
alveoli AS a result, the affected lobe
Of the lung is changed from an air
containing structure to one which is
airless. But it is not the lung affec-
ton alone that makes the patient so
Ill in pneumonia, but also the fact that
he suffers from a general blood infec-
ton.
The patient who contracted pneu-
monia can easily be recognized as a
very sick person indeed. He has a
severe chill lasting several minutes.
his fever is high, 1O4-105 degrees, the
face is flushed, the expression is anxi-
Gus. He is nauseated and complains
of a severe headache. He breathes
very rapidly using short breaths and
complains of pain in the chest, especi-
ally of the affected side. There is a
frequent short cough which is very
painful and the patient raises a little
bloody sputum.
In children the symptoms are about
the same. The pneumonia may, how
ever, be ushered in with commissions
and vomiting, Or the baby may com
plain of a severe pain in the abdomen
which may be diagnosed as indiges-
ton or appendicitis. A number of
cases have been reported in the medi-
cal literature where babies were oper-
ated for appendicitis because of their
abdominal pain, when their actual
trouble was pneumonia.
The outcome of the disease is al
ways doubtful. One can never tell
what might happen to the patients
during the course of the illness. That
IS why most pneumonia patients in
the hospital, are put on the danger
list. If everything runs favorably, the
patients temperature may drop to
normal on the 5th, 7th, or 9th day.
We then say the patient has had his
crisis. The danger is over. He will
still remain in bed for 7 to 10 DAYS
until his lung undergoes resolution
and he fully RECEIVERS. During this
time and later the physician will
watch the patient carefully for pos
sible complications.
Great discoveries with benefit to
mankind have been made recently in
the matter of treatment of pneumonia.
In the former years the disease was
treated symptomatically and different
organs of the human body-heart, kid
neys, stomach, ETC., were given atten-
ton until the crisis would come.
Lately, however, specific indications
for pneumonia have been discovered
By means of these discoveries the
pneumococcus itself, the causitive fac
tor in pneumonia, is being attacked.
Two substances are being used for
this purpose. Horse serum, prefer
ably that of rabbits, and a newly dis
covered drug -Sulfapyridine.
1t has been proven that the serum
injected into the vein of the pneu-
monia patient will attack and destroy
the capsule of the pneumococcus, thus
rendering it shieldless. The Sulfapy-
ridine taken by mouth will then
attack and disintigrate the pneumo-
coccus itself. The remains of the
broken up germ is carried by the pa
I TENTS circulation to his kidneys and
passed out with the urine
Employment of the specific pneu-
monia serum, especially of the rabbit
type with Sulfapyridine in pneumonia
has diminished the mortality rate
tremendously. 1t has cut the dura-
tion of the disease to a few days and
has diminished it's complications.
ciated. Soprano solos were rendered
by Helen Holiday. Interment at Mt
Hope.