Community-acquired pneumonia as an urgent problem of modern society

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, there are still many unresolved issues in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease despite its enormous social and economic significance. Mortality associated with CAP in elderly patients is increasing, as the proportion of people over 65 is growing every year. The purpose of this review is to consider the most significant issues in CAP diagnostics and treatment, that will improve the quality of medical care and prognosis of CAP patients. Data from Pubmed, eLIBRARY, and other sources were used to collect the information. The lack of an adequate etiological diagnosis of bacterial CAP has led to unjustified antibacterial therapy, which contributes to the spread of antibiotic-resistant strains of microorganisms and increase in side effects of antibiotics. During COVID-19 pandemic, it has become even more difficult etiologically to diagnose infectious respiratory diseases. The lack of knowledge about the peculiarities of managing patients with comorbid pathology has become more evident. Everyone has understood that the severity of bronchopulmonary diseases was underestimated by the population. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the most formidable CAP complications. The authors describe pathogenetic mechanisms of renal dysfunction, diagnostic methods, AKI treatment and prevention in patients with CAP. Underestimation of the forecast severity, both medium-term and long-term, in patiemts with CAP leads to an insufficiently high level of immunization against influenza and pneumococcus. The authors declare that it is desirable to pay much attention to preventive health messages not only relating to cardiovascular or oncological diseases, but also infectious respiratory diseases.