Introduction
Approximately 2.5 million individuals in the United States contract pneumonia annually, and 55,000 of those individuals die as a result. In fact, pneumonia was the eighth prominent cause of morbidity and is the number one communicable disease in the United States. Pneumonia is the leading deadly hospital-contracted disease and contributes to a sizable amount of deaths in unindustrialized countries as well. It is a grave illness that can impact individuals in all age groups, but it is especially serious in adolescents, the elderly population, and in people with fundamental medical issues such as ischemia, low blood sugar, and ...
