Clinical Microbiology: Open Access

Respiratory Diseases and Antimicrobial Resistance

Charlotte Doidge^* Department of Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
^*Correspondence: Charlotte Doidge, Department of Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, Email:

Received: 06-Jan-2022, Manuscript No. CMO-22-268; Editor assigned: 10-Jan-2022, Pre QC No. CMO-22-268; Reviewed: 24-Jan-2022, QC No. CMO-22-268; Revised: 28-Mar-2022, Manuscript No. CMO-22-268; Published: 04-Feb-2022

Description

Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI) is used as a synonym for pneumonia but can also be applied to other types of infection including lung abscess and acute bronchitis. Symptoms include shortness of breath, weakness, fever, coughing and fatigue. A routine chest X-ray is not always necessary for people who have symptoms of a lower respiratory tract infection.

Pulmonary mucormycosis

Lower respiratory tract infection develops most frequently in severely immunocompromised patients, particularly those with hematological malignancies and allogeneic HSCT. Key factors associated with development of pulmonary mucormycosis include prolonged and profound neutropenia, corticosteroid use, and GVHD. Pulmonary disease also develops in solid organ transplant recipients. Pulmonary mucormycosis may appear radiologically as solitary lung nodules, segmental or lobar consolidation, halo signs, and cavitary or bronchopneumonic lesions. Persistent fevers and pulmonary infiltrates refractory to broad-spectrum antibacterial agents in a compromised patient should suggest fungal pneumonia. As the presentation of pulmonary mucormycosis is similar to that of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, a diagnostic procedure such as Broncho Alveolar Lavage (BAL) is important.

The pulmonary lesions of mucormycosis typically are rapidly progressive in compromised hosts. Invasion of pulmonary vessels might also additionally cause thrombosis and pulmonary infarcts. Infection might also additionally increase across tissue planes to contain the chest wall, pericardium, myocardium, superior vena cava, and diaphragm. Invasion of the great vessels may cause aneurysm formation with deadly hemoptysis and progressive as endobronchial ailment with airway obstruction. High-resolution CT is advanced to standard chest radiographs for early analysis and for delineating the extent of pulmonary and mediastinal involvement. The air crescent and halo signs, which can be normally related to invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, will also be observed in pulmonary mucormycosis. Respiratory tract infection may arise alone, concomitant with sinus ailment, or as a part of a disseminated process, radiological evaluation of extra pulmonary sites have to be taken into consideration in the initial evaluation.

Antimicrobial resistance

Resistance to antimicrobials is a natural biological phenomenon. The introduction of every antimicrobial agent into clinical practice has been followed by the detection in the laboratory of strains of microorganisms that are resistant, i.e. able to multiply in the presence of drug concentrations higher than the concentrations in humans receiving therapeutic doses. Such resistance may either be a characteristic associated with the entire species or emerge in strains of a normally susceptible species through mutation or gene transfer. Resistance genes encode various mechanisms which allow microorganisms to resist the inhibitory effects of specific antimicrobials. These mechanisms offer resistance to other antimicrobials of the same class and sometimes to several different antimicrobial classes.

Deaths from acute respiration infections, diarrhoeal diseases, measles, AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis account for greater than 85% of the mortality from contamination worldwide. Resistance to first-line pills in maximum of the pathogens inflicting those sicknesses stages from 0 to nearly 100%. The prevention of antibiotic misuse, which can lead to antibiotic resistance, includes taking antibiotics only when prescribed. Narrow-spectrum antibiotics are preferred over broad-spectrum antibiotics when possible, as effectively and accurately targeting specific organisms is less likely to cause resistance, as well as side effects. For people who take these medications at home, education about proper use is essential. Health care providers can minimize spread of resistant infections by use of proper sanitation and hygiene, including hand washing and disinfecting between patients, and should encourage the same of the patient, visitors, and family members.