[Epidemiology and Aetiology of Community-acquired Pneumonia (CAP)]

Abstract

Community-acquired pneumonia is a frequent disease. Case-fatality rate and incidence are increasing with age. The German nation-wide competence network CAPNETZ presents reliable data on aetiology and course of the disease, based on more than 9000 prospectively observed patients. This review discusses current CAPNETZ-publication and their impact on daily clinical practice. The most frequent isolated pathogen isolated was STREPTOCOCCUS PNEUMONIAE. According to CAPNETZ results, the importance of atypical pathogens (i. e. Mycoplasma spp., Chlamydia spp., Legionella spp.) may have been overestimated in older studies: CHLAMYDIA PNEUMONIAE (< 1 %) are rarely found, and the most frequent atypical pathogen, Mycoplasma spp., causes only mild disease in younger patients resulting in a very low case-fatality-rate (0.7 %). Only hospitalized patients with legionella infections are at an increased risk to die. Gram-negative ENTEROBACTERIACEAE and PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA are rare, restricted to high-risk patient groups (e. g. mulitmorbidity, enteral tube feeding), but are associated with an increased case-fatality rate.