HEALTH Pneumonia increases likelihood of death after recovery, study says

During the three-year test period, 125 of 366 patients in the study died.
TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
People who survive pneumonia have a markedly greater chance of dying in the three years after their complete recovery, researchers have found.
The findings suggest that pneumonia -- a common respiratory illness that is already one of the biggest killers worldwide -- has a much greater health impact than previously believed on those who recover fully.
"Recovery from pneumonia may provide only a short-time lease on a future healthy life," said Dr. Scott Dowell of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He said this "sobering message" should prompt public-health officials to take far more seriously preventive measures, such as vaccinating people against common strains of pneumococcal disease.
The research, published in the current edition of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, involved 366 patients ages 18 to 80 who were treated for pneumonia.
Results
They were followed for three years after recovery. In that period, 125 of the subjects died.
That death rate, 35 percent, was five times the expected death rate among a group of comparable age drawn from the general population.
The high death rate is all the more remarkable because it does not include patients who succumbed quickly to pneumonia (usually the case with the frail elderly) and because patients who were immune-compromised or who had recently been hospitalized for reasons other than pneumonia were also excluded.