Prevention

Older adults over the age of 65 should get the pneumococcal vaccine.

The pneumococcal vaccines can prevent pneumonia. If you do get pneumonia and you are vaccinated, you are less likely to get very sick.

Two kinds of pneumococcal vaccines are available: 

• Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV13, PCV15, or PCV20)
• Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23)

These vaccines protect against most types of pneumococcal bacteria. Ask your healthcare professional which vaccine is best for you.

Other Ways to Prevent Illness

Avoid people who are sick. If you are sick, stay away from others as much as possible to keep them from getting sick. You can also help prevent respiratory infections by:

• Quitting smoking
• Washing your hands regularly
• Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces that people often touch
• Coughing or sneezing into a tissue or into your elbow or sleeve
• Limiting contact with cigarette smoke or quitting smoking
• Taking good care of medical conditions, like asthma, diabetes, or heart disease

In addition, older people who are at risk for aspiration (which means saliva or food going into your airways and lungs instead of stomach), should get detailed evaluation from your healthcare provider, and work with a speech therapist to minimize aspiration risk.

Prescription Treatment

Treatment of pneumonia can involve several types of drugs. The type of treatment depends on if your pneumonia is caused by a virus or bacteria.

For bacterial pneumonia, antibiotics should be chosen depending upon your risk factors. For example, your overall immune status, previous infection history, and antibiotic usage, and other health problems you may have. Often such pneumonia is treated with high dose of antibiotics.

Your healthcare provider can provide information on risks and benefits of using high dose antibiotics. When the source of infection is not clear, often multiple antibiotics may be needed to cover all types of infection. Treatment can be more targeted once you have results from diagnostic tests. For hospitalized patients with severe pneumonia, multiple specialists are often involved in the treatment.

Hospitalization

A healthcare professional will evaluate if a person's pneumonia is severe enough to go to a hospital for further evaluation and management. This evaluation considers:

• age
• level of confusion
• blood pressure
• breathing rate and possible need for oxygen supplementation
• other co-existing health conditions
• preliminary tests showing how the body’s other major organs are working

Last Updated October 2022