ures can be used to identify the strain of infection and its susceptibility to antibiotic drugs. S. pneumoniae is still the most common organism responsible for CAP, followed by Haemophilus influenzae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. In those over 65 years of age, Staphylococcus aureus, gram-negative bacilli, respiratory viruses, and Haemophilus influenzae are the most common cause of CAP (4). However, File, Tan and Plouffe (8) point out that the pathogen remains unidentified in 30 percent to 50 percent of cases of CAP.
It is important when diagnosing suspected cases of CAP to determine if the patient actually has pneumonia or a systemic infectious disease with a pulmonary component (7:123). If a case of pneumonia has unexplained extrapulmonary signs, symptoms, and laboratory abnormalities, atypical pneumonia should be presumed. A population-based case-control study of risk factors for community-acquired pneumonia was carried out in a mixed residential-industrial urban area of 74,610 inhabitants in Spain between 1993 and 1995 (1). All inhabitants showing clinical signs of pneumonia were included in the study - 205 subjects in all. The study found the risk factors associated with pneumonia included low body mass index, smoking, respiratory infections, previous pneumonia, chronic lung disease, lung tuberculosis, asthma, treated diabetes, chronic liver disease, and treatment with aminophylline and aerosols. The most significant risk factors were smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day, previous respiratory infections and chronic bronchitis. The study found benzodiazepines to be protective against pneumonia.
Craven and Steger (6) state that most cases o
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