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Query: UMLS:C0032285 (pneumonia)
 54,520 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

An extensive study of the epidemiological and serological characteristics of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection was carried out in a military population. There was an increase in the infection rate at Camp Lejeune during the summer months as indicated by a relative increase in isolations, seroconversions, and hospitalizations for M. pneumoniae pneumonia. Twenty-three percent of the trainees who later became infected had detectable, pre-existing antilipid antibody to M. pneumoniae. When the whole organism was used as antigen, a pre-existing complement fixation (CF) titer of 1:4 or greater correlated with resistance to M. pneumoniae disease as defined by the absence of a fourfold rise in CF antibody, shedding of organisms, and clinical illness. Pre-existing antilipid fraction CF antibody titers of 1:16 or greater correlated with protection against mild and severe M. pneumoniae disease. Antilipid CF antibody titers of 1:4 and 1:8 were related to protection against mild disease but were not associated with protection against pneumonia which required hospitalization. The severity of illness was directly related to the CF antibody response in trainees with acute respiratory disease and pneumonia due to M. pneumoniae. The findings provide a basis for the development of a M. pneumoniae vaccine.
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PMID:Relationship of pre-existing antibody to subsequent infection by Mycoplasma pneumoniae in adults. 458 85

In January 1993, Nyamithuthu Camp in Malawi housed 64,000 Mozambican refugees. Communicable diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and measles cause substantially higher mortality rates in refugee populations compared to similar nondisplaced populations. A sample of 402 households in one part of the camp was surveyed for diarrheal risk factors, then interviewed twice weekly for 4 months about new diarrhea episodes and the presence of soap in the household. Each refugee was routinely rationed 240 g of soap in bar form per month. Surveyed households had soap on an average of only 38% of interview days, with soap used mainly for bathing and washing clothes. While 81% of mothers reported washing their children's hands, only 28% of those mothers used soap for that purpose. There were 27% fewer episodes of diarrhea in households where soap was present compared to when soap was not present. No potential confounding factors were found to be responsible for the association between the presence of soap and reductions in the incidence of diarrhea. These findings highlight the importance of regularly providing adequate soap rations in reducing diarrhea in refugee populations.
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PMID:The effect of soap distribution on diarrhoea: Nyamithuthu Refugee Camp. 969 46

Out of 13,460 soldiers at Camp Wheeler who were vaccinated with pneumococcus lipovaccine less than one in one hundred was sick enough for the hospital. The camp pneumonia rate for unvaccinated soldiers was five times (crude) or twenty times (corrected) that for vaccinated. Civil life has important uses for such vaccination.
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PMID:PRESENT STATUS OF PNEUMOCOCCUS VACCINE. 1801 Jan 48

1. From a study of the agglutinins and protective power of the serum of 42 persons vaccinated against the pneumococcus, Types I, II, and III, it is demonstrated that a definite immune response has been secured to Types I and II by the dose of vaccine employed. Little evidence of response to Type III can be demonstrated by these methods, but this is of less significance in that in animals it is relatively difficult to secure antibodies against this strain in the serum, even though a considerable degree of active immunity may have been produced in the vaccinated animal. 2. The degree of response to the vaccination appears to be dependent upon the total dosage of each type of pneumococcus administered. While some response may be elicited by 2(1/2) billion cocci of each type, a much more constant and greater response follows 13 billion. 3. In subcutaneous administration the manner in which the total dosage is divided, whether given in a single large dose, in seven small daily doses, or in three to five moderate doses at 3 to 7 day intervals, seems to have little influence upon the degree of immune response, provided the total dosage is the same. 4. The local and general toxic reaction varies greatly in different individuals. The smaller the individual doses, the fewer are the severe reactions. This makes it desirable to divide the total dosage into as many inoculations as circumstances make practicable. 5. At Camp Upton 12,519 men have been vaccinated against Pneumococcus Types I, II, and III. Three or four doses were given at intervals of 5 to 7 days with a total dosage of 6 to 9 billion of Types I and II and 4(1/2) to 6 billion of Type III. 6. During the 10 weeks that have elapsed since the vaccination, no cases of pneumonia of these three types have occurred among the men who had received two or more injections of vaccine. 7. In a control of approximately 20,000 men there were twenty-six cases of Pneumococcus Types I, II, and III pneumonias during the same period. 8. The incidence of Pneumococcus Type IV pneumonia and streptococcus pneumonia was much less among the vaccinated troops than among the unvaccinated. No explanation has been advanced for this difference. 9. Small sterile infiltrations disappearing spontaneously occasionally follow the injection of large doses of pneumococcus vaccine and appear to be an expression of cutaneous hypersusceptibility. 10. The persons who develop these lesions exhibit local reactions to each dose of vaccine. They also give abnormally marked reactions to intradermal injections of pneumotoxin. They do not, however, exhibit anything notable in the agglutinative or protective powers of their sera after vaccination. Whereas the immune response is characteristically specific for the type of pneumococcus, this reaction is not specific for any type. We have found no evidence that Type III is more prone to elicit these severe local reactions than are Types I and II. 11. Prophylactic vaccination against pneumococcus of Types I, II, and III is practical and apparently gives protection against pneumonia produced by these types. It remains to be determined how long this immunity persists.
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PMID:RESULTS OF PROPHYLACTIC INOCULATION AGAINST PNEUMOCOCCUS IN 12,519 MEN. 1986 42

1. 13,460 men, or about 80 per cent of the entire camp strength, were vaccinated against pneumonia with pneumococcus lipovaccine. 2. The dosage employed in all cases was 1 cc. of the lipovaccine containing approximately 10 billion each of Pneumococcus Types I, II, and III. 3. Both the local and general reactions produced by the vaccine were usually mild. Only 0.7 per cent of those who received the vaccine were sufficiently affected to need hospital care. None of these was seriously ill, and a majority of them returned to duty on the 2nd or 3rd day after admission. 4. Most of the troops inoculated were under observation for 2 or 3 months after vaccination. During this period there were 32 cases of Pneumococcus Type I, II, and III pneumonia among the vaccinated four-fifths of camp, and 42 cases of pneumonia of these types among the unvaccinated one-fifth of camp. If, however, all cases of pneumonia that developed within 1 week after vaccination are excluded from the vaccinated group, there remain only 8 cases of pneumonia produced by fixed types, and these were all secondary to severe attacks of influenza. This exclusion is justified by the fact that protective bodies do not begin to appear in the serum until the 8th day after injection of pneumococcus lipovaccine. 5. There is no evidence whatever that pneumococcus vaccine predisposes the individual even temporarily toward either pneumococcus or streptococcus pneumonia. 6. The weekly incidence rate for pneumonia (all types) among the vaccinated troops was conspicuously lower than that for the unvaccinated troops. 7. The pneumonia incidence rate per 1,000 men during the period of the experiment was twice as high for unvaccinated recruits as for vaccinated recruits, and nearly seven times as high for unvaccinated seasoned men as for vaccinated seasoned men. 8. Influenza causes a marked reduction in resistance to pneumonia even among vaccinated men. Of the 155 cases of pneumonia (all types) developing 1 week or more after vaccination, 133 were secondary to influenza. 9. The death rate for 155 cases of pneumonia (all types) that developed among vaccinated men 1 week or more after vaccination was only 12.2 per cent, whereas the death rate for 327 cases of all types that occurred among unvaccinated troops was 22.3 per cent. The death rate for primary pneumonia among vaccinated troops was 11.9 per cent. Among unvaccinated, it was 31.8 per cent, almost three times as great. On the other hand, the mortality rate in pneumonia secondary to influenza is about the same for the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. 10. In conclusion, it must be admitted that the results of pneurnococcus vaccination at Camp Wheeler have not been so striking as those obtained at Camp Upton in 1918, largely on account of the influenza epidemic; but, although influenza obscured to some extent the effect of pneumococcus vaccination at Camp Wheeler, the results are sufficiently encouraging to justify its further application in civil as well as in military life.
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PMID:RESULTS OF PROPHYLACTIC VACCINATION AGAINST PNEUMONIA AT CAMP WHEELER. 1986 31

The influenza pandemic of 1918 killed more than 50 million people. Why was 1918 such an outlier? I. W. Brewer, a US Army physician at Camp Humphreys, Virginia, during the First World War, investigated several factors suspected of increasing the risk of severe flu: length of service in the army, race, dirty dishes, flies, dust, crowding, and weather. Overcrowding stood out, increasing the risk of flu 10-fold and the risk of flu complicated with pneumonia five-fold. Calculations made with Brewer's data show that the overall relationship between overcrowding and severe flu was highly significant (P < .001). Brewer's findings suggest that man-made conditions increased the severity of the pandemic flu illness.
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PMID:Overcrowding and Mortality During the Influenza Pandemic of 1918. 2695 69

Bacterial infection commonly complicates inflammatory airway diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The mechanisms of increased infection susceptibility and how use of the commonly prescribed therapy inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) accentuates pneumonia risk in COPD are poorly understood. Here, using analysis of samples from patients with COPD, we show that ICS use is associated with lung microbiota disruption leading to proliferation of streptococcal genera, an effect that could be recapitulated in ICS-treated mice. To study mechanisms underlying this effect, we used cellular and mouse models of streptococcal expansion with Streptococcus pneumoniae, an important pathogen in COPD, to demonstrate that ICS impairs pulmonary clearance of bacteria through suppression of the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin. ICS impairment of pulmonary immunity was dependent on suppression of cathelicidin because ICS had no effect on bacterial loads in mice lacking cathelicidin (Camp -/-) and exogenous cathelicidin prevented ICS-mediated expansion of streptococci within the microbiota and improved bacterial clearance. Suppression of pulmonary immunity by ICS was mediated by augmentation of the protease cathepsin D. Collectively, these data suggest a central role for cathepsin D/cathelicidin in the suppression of antibacterial host defense by ICS in COPD. Therapeutic restoration of cathelicidin to boost antibacterial immunity and beneficially modulate the lung microbiota might be an effective strategy in COPD.
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PMID:Inhaled corticosteroid suppression of cathelicidin drives dysbiosis and bacterial infection in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 3146 9