Pneumonia – Risk Factors

Transcript

People most at risk for developing pneumonia are people with immuno compromising conditions, such as they have underlying structural lung disease, emphysema, they have an underlying lung cancer. They have some type of cancer and they’re undergoing chemotherapy. The other risk factor that people don’t often think about is an alteration in consciousness, such that if you’re having a seizure or a stroke or a drug overdose, you can’t protect your airway, meaning that your saliva, you can aspirate it and it goes into your lungs. And that’s another common cause and risk factor for pneumonia.