Pneumonia Cases Up In Eastern Oklahoma

It seems like everybody's been sick lately. With the changing weather and all the viruses going around it's a hard time to stay healthy.<br/><br/>One dangerous bug that's going around in eastern

Tuesday, January 9th 2007, 10:17 am

By: News On 6

It seems like everybody's been sick lately. With the changing weather and all the viruses going around it's a hard time to stay healthy.

One dangerous bug that's going around in eastern Oklahoma is pneumonia. News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says doctors are calling this a bad year for pneumonia.

Little Olivia is battling pneumonia, but she's not the only one in her family who has it.

"The emergency room on Thursday said she had pneumonia, the doctors office said Friday my son had pneumonia, then that afternoon I went to the doctor and they said I had pneumonia," said Oliviaâ€™s mom April Sailsbury.

April Sailsbury says her baby's cough scared her, and she's glad it did.

"At first I was like well we can wait it's just a cold, then I was like no it's more than that and I ended up taking her to the emergency room," Sailsbury said.

Doctors say folks who wait to see their doctor are putting themselves at an even bigger risk.

"Pneumonia can absolutely be fatal if left untreated, and unrecognized can absolutely be a fatal disease," said Dr John Lapek with Saint Johns Hospital.

The symptoms can be mild. Everything from a simple cough to more obvious signs like chest pain can be an indicator of pneumonia.

"We're seeing a lot of people who are coming in with fevers, chills, cough, a typical respiratory illness. How we differentiate that from pneumonia are people who do not improve, they are developing decreased energy, fatigue, weakness, they're becoming very short of breath and maybe even having chest pain,â€ Dr. Lapek said.

Sailsbury says her 3-year-old son had a milder case of pneumonia and he's back to normal now, but the baby hasn't been so lucky.

"You could hear her breathing through her monitor, so if that gives you any indication it was bad," Sailsbury said.

And when you're a mom with two sick kids there's not much time to nurse yourself back to health.

"I just kind of took my antibiotics and tried to sleep as much as I could, I have to say Iâ€™m pretty tired," said Sailsbury.

There is a pneumonia vaccine available at most doctorâ€™s offices. It protects against 23 different kinds of pneumonia. Dr. Lapek says people with underlying illnesses, like asthma, should consider getting the vaccine. But it doesn't protect patients from every kind of pneumonia.