• The word pneumonia was said by Hippocrates himself to have been "named by the ancients" before him. As old as it is, pneumonia is still a cause of great human suffering, but we now have

better weapons to fight it.
• In a small percentage of cases, especially in the immunocompromised, a bacterial lung infection can follow several days after a common cold. Symptoms then would change from a dry cough into a productive cough, creamy-sometimes-rusty-sputum, shaking chills and sweats, and chest pain. It's important to note that antibiotics for the common cold DO NOT prevent a secondary bacterial pneumonia, but antibiotics started after the bacteria grab ahold can be life-saving. It's all about the timing.
• About 50 percent of pneumonia is due to the pneumococcus bacteria, now named Streptococcus pneumoniae. Sir William Osler said in the late 1800s that pneumonia is "the captain of the men of death." Prior to antibiotics, more than 30% of all those hospitalized for a bacterial infection of the lung would die. With antibiotics, that number dropped precipitously, but still people do die of pneumonia. Mostly they are very young or very old, related of course to their undeveloped or weakened

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