Sat next to someone with pnemonia

[googleismyfriend]

Hello all,

I sat next to someone with pneumonia today. She announced she had pnemonia, yet still came in.

Is it contagious? I'm really worried. The girl is 22/23 by the way.

I would say 'are you infectious?' Yes. Or 'You're not infectious are you?' For a more wishy washy tag question kind of effect. Either way you don't come across as less sympathetic than you obviously actually are

Pneumonia is just an infection in the lung. Most of the bugs that cause pneumonia are the same that are already sat in your (and my) upper airways. When Streptococcus pneumoniae infects the throat, it causes a "strep throat", when it infects the cerebrospinal fluid it causes meningitis, and when it infects the lung it causes a pneumonia. Can you "catch" S. pneumoniae from other people? I suppose so. Can you "catch" pneumonia? Not really and - if anything - you're very unlikely to catch bugs from deep within someone's lung.

There are exceptions, e.g. pulmonary tuberculosis is a pneumonia that is transmitted from person to person by coughing.

For what it's worth it is unlikely that this colleague has a true pneumonia if she felt well enough to be in work.