- Briefly, discuss the likely causative microorganisms contributing to this patient’s infection(s). Begin with the initial infection and the likely reasons for why the infection progressed to atypical pneumonia with the additional development of oral thrush. (10 marks)
Mrs. Brown’s initial infection was community-acquired pneumonia. The disease is known to be a respiratory tract infection that involves pulmonary parenchyma [1]. Amoxicillin was administered to cope with community-acquired pneumonia. Amoxicillin is considered to have a very high impact on the disease, which allows the bacteria not to evade more tissues, thus leading to less severe atypical pneumonia and the growth of oral thrush. Community-acquired pneumonia is characterized by coughing, which leads to the production of greenish-yellow sputum, high fever, chest pains, and painful breathing. Four different micro-organisms cause the disease. The Streptococcus pneumoniae, atypical bacteria; Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae, viruses [1, p.139], and Hemophilus influenzae. Several risk aspects for community-acquired pneumonia are asthma, immunosuppressive therapy, smoking, functional impairment, oral steroids, age, previous community-acquired pneumonia infection, and chronic bronchitis. The most common way for the microbial agents to reach the alveoli is the oropharyngeal secretion. The microbes are inhaled from air droplets and exposed to the lung tissues. The microbes overcome the alveoli macrophages to cause pneumonia. If the alveoli fail to control the microorganism, the lungs develop an inflammatory response, which is a characteristic of the movement of the monocytes and white blood cells top the alveoli space.
