Pnuemonia? Or Typhoid?

[Stiles/Akin]

I have a question dealing with of the medical records I look at. I am no doctor so I am spitballing here. Could the pnuemonia have been caused by Typhoid?Many died from.dufferent forms of Typhus Could pnuemonia have been a symptom of typhus or was it caused influenza?

 

[lelliott19]

I have a question dealing with of the medical records I look at. I am no doctor so I am spitballing here. Could the pnuemonia have been caused by Typhoid?Many died from.dufferent forms of Typhus Could pnuemonia have been a symptom of typhus or was it caused influenza?

In short, yes. Pneumonia was often a complication of typhoid fever and, without antibiotics to treat it, was a major cause of death among CW soldiers. Sometimes, you'll see "typhoid pneumonia" listed as the disease or complaint on carded records. Other times, you have to look at an earlier record to see typhoid or fever listed, and then a later record will list Typhoid pneumonia. The bacteria that causes pneumonia is naturally occurring in healthy individuals, and once the immune system was compromised (by any number of things), the bacteria could multiply unchecked. So, as I understand it, pretty much any illness could result in pneumonia.

 

[Stiles/Akin]

It just seems like you would point at the Typhus as the cause but it could be both.

 

[UCVRelics]

I got my choice neither?

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Louisa May Alcott only lasted 6 weeks nursing in DC and was Dx with Typhoid Pneumonia and barely survived. She always said something along the lines of she was never as well as she had been before she went caught it. I know it took her over a year to recover from it, just to get her strength back. And she was one of the lucky ones.