What is the difference between classical/typical pneumonia and atypical pneumonia?
Usually the atypical causes also involve atypical symptoms:
- No responding on common antibiotics as sulfonamide and beta-lactams like penicillin.
- No signs and symptoms of lobar consolidation, meaning that the affection is restricted to small areas, rather than involving a whole lobe. As the disease progresses, however, the look can tend to lobar pneumonia.
- Absence of leukocytosis.
- Extrapulmonary symptoms, related to the causing organism.
- Despite general symptoms and problems with the upper respiratory tract like high fever, headache, a dry irritating cough, later a productive cough and radiographs, showing consolidation, there are in general few physical signs. The patient looks worse than the symptoms suggest.