[Community-acquired pneumonia: a disease of the elderly]

Abstract

Community-acquired pneumonia is a disease with high morbidity and mortality and, therefore, has an enormous impact on health care costs. Pneumonia is mainly a disease of the elderly. Therefore, due to the dramatic change in demography of the general population, the importance of pneumonia will increase rapidly. The development of modern antibiotic therapy has improved the prognosis of pneumonia patients; however, there are also new challenges and problems, e.g., increased numbers of comorbid patients and the appearance of antibiotic resistance. In regard to antibiotic treatment of the elderly, evidence from randomized controlled clinical studies is missing. Nevertheless, the improvement in diagnosis and the introduction of risk stratification approaches have led to a standardization in therapy and better quality of care in Germany. Vaccination strategies for special pathogens, e.g., S. pneumoniae, reduced the burden of disease.