Today we shall be talking about Pneumonia! What an exciting topic.

According to Dr William Osler considered to be the “father of modern medicine” and who trained at McGill, pneumonia is known as “the old man’s friend” he wrote, “"Pneumonia may well be called the friend of the aged. Taken off by it in an acute, not often painful illness, the old man escapes those 'cold gradations of decay' so distressing to himself and his friends.” Dr. Olser himself died from complications of pneumonia.

Pneumonia has a fascinating history as it has been with humanity for many centuries. Symptoms of pneumonia were first described by Hippocrates around 460 BC, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that doctors were aware pneumonia was its own condition and not a symptom of another disease.

Interesting tidbits of pneumonia related history, Dr. Edwin Klebs was the first person to observe bacteria causing pneumonia under the microscope in 1875 and the bacterial genus klebsiella was named after him.

Strep pneumonia, commonest cause of CAP was the first bacteria to be gram stained to distinguish gram positive from gram negative bacteria by Hans Christian Gram in 1884. Hence the name “Gram” stain.

The Spanish Flu in 1918, which was an H1N1 influenza A pandemic, killed more people than the first world war in combat, resulting in approximately 20-50 million deaths, and was the second most deadly pandemic on record. In comparison, Covid19 worldwide deaths stand at around 7 million according to the WHO in November 2023.

Alright, we could talk all day about pneumonia history, but its time to focus on CCFP objectives for pneumonia!

Authors: Veronica Oczkowski (MS4) and Andrea Brabant (rFM PGY-2)

Content Expert and Reviewer: Dr. Matt Strickland

The rest of trauma objectives including: secondary survey, child abuse suspicion, and a review of everything before we finish up.

Authors: Veronica Oczkowski (MS4) and Andrea Brabant (rFM PGY-2)

Content Expert and Reviewer: Dr. Matt Strickland

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than nine people die every minute from injuries or violence. A total of 5.8 million people of all ages and economic groups die every year from unintentional injuries and violence. The burden of injury accounts for 18% of the world’s total diseases. Motor vehicle crashes alone cause more than 1 million deaths annually and an estimated 20 million to 50 million significant injuries; they are the leading cause of death due to injury worldwide.

Traumatic presentations are unfortunately quite common, so it’s important we get comfortable with a strong approach. Our goal today is in no way to complete an exhaustive review. That being said, we did our best to prepare a brief overview that allows us to cover the CCFP objectives. Get ready. This is a pretty robust topic to cover, so buckle up!!