Comment:

Pneumonia is an acute inflammation of the airspaces of the lung, usually caused by bacterial infection. This woman died of pneumonia affecting an entire lobe of the lung, before the advent of antibiotics. Nowadays, it is uncommon to die in the acute stages of lobar pneumonia because Streptococcus pneumoniae ("the pneumococcus"), which is the bacterium that typically causes a lobar distribution of pneumonia, is sensitive to various antibiotics. However, there is an increasing incidence of pneumococcal resistance to Penicillin - usually the most effective antibiotic in this situation.