J Korean Med Assoc.  2007 Oct;50(10):860-867. 10.5124/jkma.2007.50.10.860.

Epidemiology and Etiology of Community-Acquired Pneumonia

• Lee SO
• Woo JH

• KMID: 2064997
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2007.50.10.860

Abstract

Pneumonia is the 12th leading cause of death among Korean population in 2005. In spite of sophisticated diagnostic assessments and treatment techniques, the management of the pneumonia is still challenging. Furthermore, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms poses difficulties to the selection of optimal antimicrobial agents. The empirical antibiotic regimen for the community-acquired pneumonia is based on the epidemiologic characteristics of the causative pathogens, for example, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus after influenza outbreak, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patients with chronic obstructive lung diseases. The most important and frequent etiologic organism is S. pneumonia according to a prospective multicenter study by investigators including the author, followed by K. pneumoniae, Chlamydia pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, and M. pneumoniae in decreasing order. Still we need a nation-wide surveillance system of the community-acquired pneumonia because we are not certain about the etiology in almost half the cases of community-acquired pneumonia.

Keyword

Community acquired pneumonia; Epidemiology; Etiology; S. pneumoniae; K. pneumoniae

MeSH Terms

Anti-Infective Agents
Cause of Death
Chlamydophila pneumoniae
Epidemiology*
Humans
Influenza, Human
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Lung Diseases, Obstructive
Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis
Pneumonia*
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Research Personnel
Staphylococcus aureus
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Anti-Infective Agents

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