The Vatican says Pope Francis has developed pneumonia, after new tests have shown further complication in a state of 88-year-old Pope.
The Vatican said late Tuesday that Francis’s respiratory infection also included asthmatic bronchitis, which required the use of cortisone antibiotic treatment.
“Laboratory tests, an X -ray of the chest and the clinical condition of the Holy Father continue to represent a complex picture,” Vatican said. Nevertheless, the Pope is in a good mood and is grateful for his recovery prayers, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni in a late update.
Officials said on Monday that the Pope suffers from “polymycrobial infections of the respiratory tract”.
Here is the latest diagnosis of the pope and what his treatment might include.
What is the infection of the polyMicrobial respiratory tract?
Basically, this means that there is a mixture of bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites that grow in one’s lungs.
“Often people will get bronchitis or respiratory infection, and this can often be launched by multiple problems cascades, including infections in the lungs,” said Dr. Maor Sauler, who specializes in the medicine of pulmonary and critical care for adults at the Yale Medicinal School. He said such issues are common in older people whose immune system could be weaker or had complex health issues.
“That probably means there are more than one body in the lungs,” Saler said, explaining that the Pope’s doctors may have to adjust the treatment to make sure that antibiotics attack all different organisms.
How serious is this?
For someone with Pope’s medical history – he lost some of his right lungs a decade ago and had previously had pneumonia – he was worried that he was hospitalized.
Dr. Nick Hopkinson, Medical Director of Asthma + Lung UK, said most healthy people are likely to recover quickly from bronchitis.
But in people whose lungs are already damaged, “bacteria can come and colonize the airways and begin to see infections that make it difficult to treat.” In people with lungs that have been prevents before, they may need help in breathing, including the support of oxygen or a chest physiotherapy to help them clean the fluids accumulate in the lungs.
Tourists and residents expressed equally to a good woman for the recovery of Pope Francis, in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican and outside the agostino Gemelli University Policlinic in Rome, where PontiF is treated from pneumonia. On Tuesday night, a group of believers from Bolivia prayed outside the hospital, under the statue of Pope John Paul II.
Still, Hopkinson said that getting the Pope for the right medication should help.
“If they have identified certain things for treatment, they can be treated and he will start recovering.”
How much could this take?
It depends. Antibiotic treatments usually last from a few days to about two weeks. Hopkinson said the Pope could give various medicines, including those that people usually take for asthma or conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, except that physiotherapy got to be as clear to his chest as possible.
“Some infections require long -term treatment because it is only harder to clean them from the system,” Hopkinson said. “It sounds like they have identified responsible mistakes and they will be able to treat them – but we will just have to wait and see.”
Dr. Peter Openshaw, a lung expert from Imperial College London, said that the presence of more organisms is not unusual for people with complex medical history, but that they could be difficult to manage them.
Are there other questions that can make the doctors concern?
“Although we can treat pneumonia with antibiotics, pneumonia is also one of the leading causes of death,” Saler said of Yale University. He said antibiotics did not act on isolation and that a person’s immune system is also crucial to combat pneumonia, pointing out that the immune system in elderly people is usually not resistant.
“When you are 88, the age of the Pope, you suddenly have risk factors that make the situation more difficult than routine pneumonia.”
What will the doctors follow the following?
Saler said that the biggest thing to look out for in the coming days is any sign that the Pope is getting worse.
“I would be most interested in not getting worse despite the best efforts [of his doctors]. This is usually a poor forecast sign, “he said, adding that he would probably review his condition in a few days to see if they were working or not prescribed medication.
“I have optimism and I hope it will be able to break through with real antibiotics.”
