The acute pneumonia community (PAC) are frequent respiratory ailments, with around 500,000 new cases each year in France. They kill 3.5 times more people each year than traffic accidents and almost 17 times more than the flu. Among those most at risk of pneumonia are diabetic people (type 1 or type 2) due to impaired immunity. This alteration is a consequence of the chronic hyperglycemia that characterizes their disease.
The risk of developing pneumonia is up to twice as high in people with diabetes and increases with the number of underlying conditions called co-morbidities. Obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic heart disease are, for example, risk factors for pneumonia.
“The infectious complications in the diabetic subject are real, however it seems to me that diabetologists are not yet sufficiently sensitized to the risk of infection. Perhaps they do not see enough this complication because diabetic patients hospitalized for pneumonia are hospitalized in an infectious disease or internal medicine department but not in a diabetology department “ explains Professor Bernard Bauduceau, former head of the Endocrinology and Diabetology department at Begin Hospital (Saint-Mandé), during a conference organized by the Pfizer laboratory.
More frequent but also more serious pneumonia
Impaired immunity in diabetic patients results in more frequent but also more serious infections: the risk of hospitalization in the event of pneumonia is increased by 26% in the event of diabetes compared to a non-diabetic patient. The risk of mortality increases by 55% compared to the non-diabetic population.
“Pneumonia is the first cause of hospitalization and death in diabetic subjects. In my opinion, this significant risk is not well understood by physicians who do not
not necessarily think of diabetes as a risk factor for pneumonia “, adds Dr
Benjamin Wyplosz, from the infectious and tropical diseases department at the Kremlin-Bicêtre CHU.
A vaccine on the immunization schedule
It is for all these reasons that the High Council of Public Health recalls that vaccination against pneumococcus is included in the vaccination schedule since 2017 in diabetic patients, in the same way as the flu vaccination. The two vaccines can also be done at the same time.
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