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What is the bilateral pneumonia that affected Silvio Berlusconi? Let’s start with the basics: pneumonia is an acute inflammation of the lungs (of only one or, more commonly, of both and is therefore defined bilateral), of a mostly infectious nature, which if not recognized and treated, can compromise the capacity respiratory system, and therefore, in extreme cases, endangering the lives of those affected.
What is the bilateral pneumonia that affected Berlusconi?
Pneumonia of viral origin, such as that caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which caused the hospitalization of Silvio Berlusconi in San Raffaele in Milan, leads in a good number of cases to hospitalization. The reason is that these pneumonia usually affect the interstitial tissue (the one between one alveolus and the other), which is the deepest part of the lungs.
Diagnosis of bilateral pneumonia can be made by taking a history, auscultation of the patient’s chest showing typical crepitus, and measurement of blood oxygenation, but is only confirmed by chest radiography. But the chest X-ray can be negative, so a CT scan is necessary, as in the case of Berlusconi.
Bilateral interstitial pneumonia is a particularly serious form of pneumonia. In its acute form, it is the most serious consequence of coronavirus infection, which can lead to severe respiratory failure in a matter of days. The infection caused by the coronavirus, called COVID-19, can take various forms and trigger a bilateral interstitial pneumonia capable of evolving towards the dangerous Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), a consequence of the “cytokine storm”, a disproportionate reaction. from the immune system to viral invasion. In the case of Berlusconi, it is currently unknown whether bilateral pneumonia in the initial phase affects the interstitium or not.
The link between bilateral pneumonia and Covid-19
In the specific case of Silvio Berlusconi, the information available is for early-stage “bilateral pneumonia”: this means that both lungs have been affected and that the disease is currently present. The course of the disease cannot be predicted with certainty. In a few days it will be clear how widely the lung will be affected and it will be understood if the evolution will be mild or more severe. The force leader’s health conditions at this time would not be of particular concern and the former prime minister is not hospitalized in intensive care.
The characteristic symptoms of bilateral pneumonia affecting interstitial tissue are “fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, fatigue, malaise,” but not all symptoms occur at the same time.
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Even before the health emergency related to the coronavirus, pneumonia has always been a disease that should not be underestimated at all because it affects vital organs. In the case of pneumonia, conditions must be closely monitored. In the case of the coronavirus epidemic, in most cases SARS-CoV-2, through the respiratory tract, enters our body and replicates within cells. The symptoms of this phase are the classic ones of flu syndromes: malaise, generalized arthralgia, fever, dry cough. When the disease stops at this stage, spontaneously or thanks to medications, the prognosis is excellent. In the case of elderly patients, such as Silvio Berlusconi, 84, when bilateral pneumonia develops, the situation must be monitored more closely.
