“Uses [pneumonia] as a vehicle for examining the evolution of therapeutics in America between the ‘Golden Age of Microbiology’ and the ‘Age of Antibiotics.’”—Isis Focusing largely on the treatment of pneumonia in first half of the century with type-specific serotherapy, clinician-historian Scott H. Podolsky provides insight into the rise and clinical evaluation of therapeutic “specifics,” the contested domains of private practice and public health, and—as the treatment of pneumonia made the transition from serotherapy to chemotherapy and antibiotics—the tempo and mode of therapeutic change itself. Type-specific serotherapy, founded on the tenets of applied immunology, justified by controlled clinical trials, and grounded in a novel public ethos, was deemed revolutionary when it emerged to replace supportive therapeutics. With the advent of the even more revolutionary sulfa drugs and antibiotics, pneumonia ceased to be a public health concern and became instead an illness treated in individual patients by individual physicians. Podolsky describes the new therapeutics and the scientists and practitioners who developed and debated them. He finds that, rather than representing a barren era in anticipation of some unknown transformation to come, the first decades of the twentieth-century shaped the use of, and reliance upon, the therapeutic specific throughout the century and beyond. This intriguing study will interest historians of medicine and science, policymakers, and clinicians alike. “Podolsky’s scholarship is awesome, and his grasp of the philosophical and sociologic context of the issues considered make this an important work.” —New England Journal of Medicine “This thoroughly documented, carefully written book is a landmark analysis . . . It should be read by everyone who is involved in research and therapeutic development.” —JAMA

Severe Community Acquired Pneumonia is a book in which chapters are authored and the same topics discussed by North American and European experts. This approach provides a unique opportunity to view the different perspectives and points of view on this subject. Severe CAP is a common clinical problem encountered in the ICU setting. This book reviews topics concerning the pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of SCAP. The discussions on the role of alcohol in severe CAP and adjunctive therapies are important topics that further our understanding of this severe respiratory infection.

Severe Community Acquired Pneumonia is a book in which chapters are authored and the same topics discussed by North American and European experts. This approach provides a unique opportunity to view the different perspectives and points of view on this subject. Severe CAP is a common clinical problem encountered in the ICU setting. This book reviews topics concerning the pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of SCAP. The discussions on the role of alcohol in severe CAP and adjunctive therapies are important topics that further our understanding of this severe respiratory infection.

Treatment of community-acquired pneumonia and hospital-acquired pneumonia, when to hospitalize a patient, methods of identifying low-risk CAP patients, switch and step-down therapy, approach to nonresloving pneumonia, management of parapneumonic effusions, empyema, and chronic bronchitis are discussed. The various antimicrobial agents are reviewed in deatil with suggested treatment regimens.

Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) refers to pneumonia acquired outside of hospitals or extended-care facilities, and is distinct from Nosocomial or hospital-acquired pneumonia, which is a separate disease entity. It is one of the most common respiratory infections and presents one of the major health problems today, with an incidence that ranges from eight to fifty cases per thousand individuals each year. Mortality is still very high and yet the risk factors are very well known. Many of these are related to antibiotic treatment; delay in administration, inadequacy of empiric antibiotics and lack of adherence to guidelines for treatment are all clearly associated with poor treatment outcomes. Following a description of the epidemiology and microbial etiology of ambulatory and hospitalized CAP, this book provides an in-depth review of the important new advances in therapeutics, including management of drug resistance to the three major classes of antibiotics used for treatment of CAP: β-lactams, macrolides and quinolones. All of them have advantages and disadvantages and these are put into perspective. This book highlights guideline recommendations and presents a balanced analysis to help physicians deliver the highest standard of care. In addition, the authors provide an insight into the 10% of patients who do not respond to antibiotics and could benefit from adjunctive therapies, some still under review. This volume will be welcomed by pulmonologists and all clinicians involved in managing community-acquired pneumonia.

Studying the lung microbiome requires a specialist approach to sampling, laboratory techniques and statistical analysis. This Monograph introduces the techniques used and discusses how respiratory sampling, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, metagenomics and the application of ecological theory can be used to examine the respiratory microbiome. It examines the different components of the respiratory microbiome: viruses and fungi in addition to the more frequently studied bacteria. It also considers a range of contexts from the paediatric microbiome and how this develops to disease of all ages including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic suppurative lung diseases, interstitial lung diseases, acquired pneumonias, transplantation, cancer and HIV, and the interaction of the respiratory microbiome and the environment.