How do you catch pneumonia?!
Question: How do you catch pneumonia.?
My friend is very sick in ICU. I think she caught pneumonia during her previous hospital stay. The hospital is being vague about when it started.Health Question & Answer
Answers:
You can't catch pneumonia as per say, its not viral its bacterial. When someone has pneumonia its because this kind of infection creates fluid that blocks the alveoli. This makes it hard for oxygen to get deep into the lungs.When you breathe in, you pull oxygen into your lungs. That oxygen travels through breathing tubes and eventually gets into your blood through the alveoli (say: al-vee-oh-lie).
Alveoli are tiny air sacs covered in tiny blood vessels called capillaries. How can something so small get oxygen into your blood.? You have about 600 million of them! When oxygen-rich air reaches the alveoli, it can be absorbed into the blood. Then your red blood cells can carry oxygen all over your body.The body needs oxygen to keep working properly and to stay alive. Health Question & Answer
Alveoli are tiny air sacs covered in tiny blood vessels called capillaries. How can something so small get oxygen into your blood.? You have about 600 million of them! When oxygen-rich air reaches the alveoli, it can be absorbed into the blood. Then your red blood cells can carry oxygen all over your body.The body needs oxygen to keep working properly and to stay alive. Health Question & Answer
As Pebbles said, you don't "catch" pneumonia. What happens is you get exposed to a bacteria in some way. The bacteria works its way to the lungs and chooses that warm moist spot in which to grow... leading to developing pneumonia.Health Question & Answer