Gram-Negative Bacterial Pneumonia: Increasing Cases Call for Treatment and Prevention Measures

Wednesday 30 October 2013, Amsterdam

Rising numbers of elderly populations across the seven major markets (7MM) are presenting opportunities for the treatment and prevention of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), according to the latest report from research and consulting firm GlobalData.

This new report states that in 2012, the US and 5EU (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) witnessed almost 4.2 million incident cases of CAP, with 82% of these occurring in the US. By 2022, GlobalData forecasts this figure to climb to almost 4.7 million across these six major markets (6MM).

Meanwhile, Japan experienced more than 40,000 cases of CAP and HAP combined in 2012 – a figure which is expected to reach over 55,000 in 2022, at an Annual Growth Rate (AGR) of 3.78%. Adults in Japan aged 80 years and over comprised the largest proportion of incident cases in 2012, followed by those aged between 70 and 79 years old.

Janky Patel, Epidemiologist, says: “Japan’s growing elderly population and the high prevalence of smoking in the country both contribute to the large proportion of people that will be at risk for pneumonia in this market. The risk is further increased in Japan due to the lack of strict public smoking bans, resulting in environmental tobacco smoke exposure in the population.”

Chronic diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease are also deemed responsible for the rising incidence rates of pneumonia in the 7MM.

Patel continues: “Pneumonia incidence differs between countries, possibly due to socioeconomic factors and differences in infectious disease reporting. Various resistance patterns could be attributed to differences in types of causative pathogens, further complicating the understanding of the cause and treatment of pneumonia.

“As a result of this, and from a public health perspective, we can see that measures need to be in place for the prevention and treatment of pneumonia, so as to avoid disease transmission and reduce the overall incidence of the condition in the future,” the epidemiologist concludes.