Some diseases may not manifest in seniors with typical symptoms. Even serious diagnosis, such as pneumonia, can take place without fever or cough. This was pointed out by experts at a Tuesday press conference on seniors care.
“Typical symptoms are often inconspicuous or completely missing. The disease may also be manifested by symptoms from a completely different organ system. For example, with increased thyroid activity, the patient may only arrive at the heart failure stage, ”said Adriana Šimková.
Symptoms, such as tinnitus in the ears, may also have various causes – from neurological to hematological. She pointed out that seniors are also taking several drugs at onceTherefore, the general practitioner should also think of their potential interactions or side effects.
The head of the Department of Pneumology, Phthisiology and Functional Diagnostics of the Slovak Medical University and University Hospital Bratislava Štefan Laššán explained that pneumonia is the most common cause of hospitalization for respiratory diseases in seniors. He explained that the elderly does not often start typically – it can manifest itself in anorexia, confusion, fall or worsening the general condition.
The pneumologist explained that In seniors, several diseases are frequent at the same time (polymorbidity) and the use of multiple drugs (polypragmasia)which can mask or distort other symptoms. For example, a weakened cough reflex causes the cough to be present at all.
Laššán stressed that the cause of pneumonia is viral infections, which often open doors to bacterial infections, most often caused by pneumococcal. He pointed out that pneumococcal pneumonia in seniors has high mortality – up to 80 percent of hospitalized patients over 80 may succumb to this disease. In his words, vaccination – against influenza, pneumococcus, respiratory syncycial virus, whooping cough and Covid -19.
As he added, seniors, especially those who are residents of social services facilities, should also be vaccinated against pneumococci. He noted that many seniors would be infected when they have contact with their grandchildren. “If we were able to prevent only of these two preventive diseases – influenza and pneumococcal infections, we could prevent up to five percent of the European population deaths,” Laššán said.
