What are the symptoms of a pneumonia?
Pneumonia may follow an upper respiratory infection or may begin with cold symptoms. Chills and fever develop, with temperature rising as high as 105?176?F.
The patient feels weak and experiences muscle aches and appetite loss. Breathing becomes difficult and is complicated by a cough.
As the illness progresses, the cough produces sputum, ranging from green to yellow to rusty in color. Rusty sputum usually indicates internal bleeding.
If left untreated, the lung infection can spread to other parts of the body, including the joints, ear, heart, brain (which can lead to meningitis) or bloodstream - often causing death.
What are the signs and symptoms of a common pneumonia?
The description that follows is that for a pneumonia caused by pneumococci, but this is rather similar for other types of pneumonia.
The onset is usually sudden with a single shaking chill; persistent chills suggest an alternative diagnosis. This is ordinarily followed by:
fever;
pain with breathing on the involved side (pleurisy);
cough;
dyspnea;
production of sputum.
The pain may be referred and, with involvement lobe of the lung may suggest symptoms of sepsis in the abdomen. The temperature rises rapidly to 38?176?C to 40.5?176?C; the pulse is usually 100 to 140 per minute; respirations accelerate to 20 to 45 per minute.
Additional common findings
