Pneumonia

Pneumonia is a leading cause of death and hospitalization, costing health care systems billions of dollars and an estimated 600,000 adult deaths worldwide each year. Pneumococcal disease is caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae and the term describes a group of illnesses, including invasive infections, such as bacteremia/sepsis and meningitis, as well as pneumonia and upper respiratory tract infections. Although all age groups may be affected, the highest rate of pneumococcal disease occurs in young children and older adults. In addition, persons suffering from a wide range of chronic conditions (eg, diabetes, cardiovascular disease) and immune deficiencies are at increased risk.

Viral vs Bacterial Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an infection of one or both lungs which affects alveoli. This article looks at the differences between bacterial and viral pneumonia.

Pneumonia in Children

Pneumonia Symptoms & Risk Factors

Walking Pneumonia Versus Common Cold

Pneumonia Classification

How is Walking Pneumonia Treated?

Pneumonia Cause

Pneumonia Diagnosis

Types of Atypical Pneumonia

Pneumonia Treatment

Who Gets Walking Pneumonia?

Walking Pneumonia Versus Bronchitis

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Walking Pneumonia versus Pneumonia

Is Sense of Smell Linked to Pneumonia?

Walking Pneumonia: When to See a Doctor?

Pneumonia Epidemiology

Is Walking Pneumonia Contagious?

Pneumonia History

Risk Factors and Walking Pneumonia Prevention

Walking Pneumonia

Latest Pneumonia News and Research

Cambridge researchers discover three distinct severe pneumonia biological subtypes

Cambridge researchers have shown that severe pneumonia has three different subtypes, helping explain why some patients in intensive care units (ICUs) recover from their illness faster than others, while for other patients the disease can be life-threatening.

23 Jun 2026

Autonomous medical AI outperforms doctors in simulated EHR cases

MIRA, an autonomous AI agent tested in a sandboxed electronic health record, diagnosed 574 real emergency department cases with 88.9% accuracy and outperformed physicians in a matched 311-case comparison. The system ordered tests, generated medication plans, and made admission decisions in simulation, but the authors stress that prospective validation, governance, and physician oversight are still essential.

21 Jun 2026

NYU Langone performs the world's first HIV-positive-to-HIV-positive lung transplant

The world's first HIV-positive-to-HIV-positive lung transplant was performed at NYU Langone Health.

19 Jun 2026

Quest Diagnostics study uncovers widespread community reservoirs of deadly gut bacterium

A common bacterial strain that lives naturally in people's guts can cause a dangerous or deadly infection for some, especially when it becomes multidrug-resistant and causes chronic urinary-tract infections (UTIs) in elderly women.

18 Jun 2026

AI diagnostic errors raise hospital blame unless doctors stay deeply involved

A two-study vignette experiment found that people attributed more responsibility to hospitals and were more likely to consider filing a complaint or taking legal action when missed diagnoses involved AI rather than a physician alone. Interactive physician involvement reduced negative reactions, while autonomous or sequential AI-human collaboration did not meaningfully improve responses compared with AI-only diagnosis.

17 Jun 2026

The importance of ketones from a clinical and medical perspective

In this interview, News-Medical talks to Marcin Pacek, senior director of medical and scientific affairs in Europe for Nova Biomedical, about the importance of ketones in a medical and clinical setting.

From Nova Biomedical 15 Jun 2026

Remote monitoring does not beat usual care for sepsis patients

Remote monitoring isn't a panacea for reducing readmissions across all conditions - and for some patients, clinicians should proceed with caution, clinical trial results published today in JAMA Network Open suggest.

11 Jun 2026

GSV hospitals achieve substantially higher delirium screening in older surgical patients

There is a stark gap in how often hospitals screen older adults for postoperative delirium, with verified geriatric surgery programs screening nearly every patient while non-accredited programs screen just half, according to new findings published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

10 Jun 2026

Infections pose major but overlooked risks in people with diabetes

Infections should be considered a "health hazard" in people living with diabetes, with experts warning that current clinical guidelines fail to reflect a substantial but under-recognized burden of illness, hospitalization and death.

7 Jun 2026

Global decline in child mortality slowed down significantly since 2015

Global progress in reducing preventable deaths among newborn babies, children, and adolescents has slowed substantially since 2015, and many countries risk missing international child survival targets by 2030, find a series of papers published by The BMJ today.

4 Jun 2026

Gladstone receives NIAID grant to establish the Center for PhAIge Therapy

When a bacterial infection stops responding to antibiotics, doctors have few options to treat it. Phages-viruses that naturally infect and kill bacteria-have long intrigued clinicians as a potential weapon against these infections.

2 Jun 2026

Smokers undergoing lung cancer surgery face higher complication risks

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine have found that patients who continue to smoke ahead of lung cancer surgery have a higher risk of pulmonary complications, but their short-term mortality rate is similar to patients who were able to stop smoking before surgery.

28 May 2026

ICU pneumonia mortality rates remain elevated in developing nations

A scientific review published today in the NEJM Evidence journal, coordinated by the D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), evaluated outcomes of adults with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in middle-income countries.

26 May 2026

New oral antiviral drug candidate targets measles and Croup syndrome

A new oral antiviral drug candidate has been developed for the treatment of diseases caused by orthoparamyxoviruses, such as measles and Croup syndrome, according to a study published by researchers in the Center for Translational Antiviral Research at Georgia State University.

22 May 2026

Adjuvanted and high-dose flu vaccines protect older adults equally well

In a large study of 429,595 adults aged 65 years or older, adjuvanted and high-dose influenza vaccines showed no significant difference in protection against PCR-confirmed influenza. The findings support current recommendations that both enhanced vaccines are reasonable options for older adults, while second-season results may further refine the evidence.

20 May 2026

Private equity hospital acquisitions linked to worse pulmonary patient outcomes

A large new study presented at the 2026 ATS International Conference shows that patients treated for COPD or pneumonia experience worse outcomes across several important measures when they are treated at hospitals that have been acquired by private equity firms.

19 May 2026

Health experts outline symptoms and risks of shipboard hantavirus

It's one of the cruisegoer's biggest fears: a contagious disease outbreak at sea.

18 May 2026

GLP-1 weight loss medications linked to significant drop in asthma flares

New research presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey (12-15 May) shows the use of the new GLP-1 class of obesity drugs in people with asthma is associated with a 26 % fall in the number of asthma exacerbations and a 14% drop in use of asthma inhaler reliever use. The study is by Simon Høj and Dr Kjell Erik Julius Håkansson, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark and colleagues.

15 May 2026

New research maps the biological toll of drinking

A new review published in the journal Addiction confirms drinking causes substantial harm to health. Some of those harms may be reversible if the person reduces or stops drinking.

14 May 2026