Atypical Pneumonia Forms, Eosinophilic Pneumonia

This type of condition is encountered very rarely and it is characterized by lung inflammation, eosinophilic reactions at pulmonary level and pronounced difficulties in breathing. The infectious nature of the condition is shown by the eosinophils accumulation inside the lungs, even though its actual causes remain unknown. Eosinophils are a type of white cells that have an important role in fighting bacteria or other infectious organisms.

Scientists believe that some kind of atypical bacteria is the cause for eosinophilic pneumonia, although an exact cause hasn't been identified yet. This supposition is based on the unusual eosinophilic response at the lungs level. This type of pneumonia produces serious impairment to the lower respiratory tract. The worst case scenario of this condition is death through asphyxiation and it can be reached by inappropriate medical care and treatment.

The eosinophilic pneumonia is also referred to as syndrome due to the variety of its presumptive underlying causes and to the fact that it generates a wide range of physical manifestations. Medical specialists are unable to diagnose this syndrome in time because of the insufficient data regarding the apparition and the evolution of the condition and its unknown etiology. The patient's chances of survival greatly increase if the diagnosis and treatment are prompt. The condition can be recovered with the existing medications in most cases even though there is no specific treatment available.

This syndrome also presents an endemic character revealed by the medical reports describing its apparition and development among the American soldiers camped in Iraq . Those reports also made the scientists believe that this condition is characteristic to certain territories. The epidemic outbreak among the U.S. troops that were recently deployed in Iraq reveals also the fact that the eosinophilic pneumonia has an increased contagiousness. Some potential underlying causes of this syndrome may be tobacco smoking and prolonged exposure to dust and sand.

Along the military personnel that was deployed in Iraq in a set of recent missions, went also a medical staff that noticed a rapid onset of the condition in 18 soldiers. All 18 cases presented exacerbated symptoms. Most cases were encountered in men aging around 22.

The exact causes of this condition are unknown but some connections were made between the syndrome and tobacco smoking among the 18 members of military personnel. Most of the men had recently started to smoke. Other risk factors for the disease were not discovered. In the eosinophilic pneumonia, some epidemiologic tests show no lung infection, eliminating thus the theory of bacterial infection. Most patients developed extra-pulmonary eosinophilia and all the cases had a pronounced eosinophilic response to the condition.

From the 18 patients infected with eosinophilic pneumonia, 16 responded well to a long corticosteroids treatment and 2 of them died because of complications. The respiratory problems were eliminated almost completely after a period of three months of treatment and at the end of the treatment all 16 patients were completely cured. In none of the cases, the condition wasn't reported to relapse and no permanent impairment of the respiratory tract was discovered.