Pope Francis has been hospitalized for a week with double pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection, conditions that experts say are treatable but can be life-threatening in elderly patients.
Here’s what you need to know about the pope’s diagnosis.
What Is Double Pneumonia?
Common causes of pneumonia include seasonal flu, COVID-19, and pneumococcal disease. Symptoms can include difficulty breathing, fever, and a cough with yellow, green, or bloody mucus. Older adults may also experience symptoms like a sudden change in mental state, appetite loss, and fatigue.
“Pneumonia is a serious infection that can be life-threatening,” says Meredith McCormack, MD, an associate professor and director of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
“Older age is a risk factor,” Dr. McCormack says. “We often think of over 65 years as a high-risk group, but each year of age adds additional risk of more serious infection.”
For an 88-year-old patient like the pope, the mortality rate could be as high as 30 percent, says Peter Chin-Hong, MD, a professor and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
“We don’t know much about the pope’s other medical history or condition at the time of hospitalization, but his age over 80 by itself is a powerful risk factor for doing poorly,” Dr. Chin-Hong says.
What Is a Polymicrobial Respiratory Infection?
A polymicrobial respiratory infection could mean the patient has more than one type of bacteria in the respiratory tract, or that the patient has a respiratory virus in addition to at least one type of bacteria in the lungs, Chin-Hong says.
“Having more than one organism diagnosed is not dangerous per se, as long as the patient is being adequately treated with the right antibiotics and/or antivirals, started in a timely fashion,” Chin-Hong says.
“One notorious polymicrobial combination is influenza followed by a bacterial infection like Streptococcus pneumoniae — the most common bacterial cause of pneumonia — or Staph aureus,” Chin-Hong says.
The Vatican has not disclosed the exact mix of organisms involved in the pope’s polymicrobial respiratory infection.
How Is Double Pneumonia Treated?
“Antibiotics or antiviral medications are the mainstay of treatment,” McCormack says. “Sometimes we use inhalers or steroids, especially in patients who have a history of asthma or chronic lung disease.”
When pneumonia is so severe that people need to be hospitalized, they may receive intravenous fluids or antibiotics, oxygen therapy, or other breathing treatments, according to the American Lung Association.
“Supportive therapy is important and can include giving supplemental oxygen or even life support when people get very sick,” McCormack says. “It does not sound like Pope Francis has required these more intensive therapies, which is encouraging.”