How can smoke give you Pneumonia

Dear Ask The Doctor: My sister is 3 and she has Pneumonia and her dad and his parents smoke and his mother has bronchitis. They smoke around her. They tested her and she has pneumonia. Help

Dear Casey:

I understand your concern about Pneumonia and Smoking. Certainly smoking is not a direct cause of Pneumonia but it increases the chances of having Pneumonia. Pneumonia is an inflammation of your lungs, usually caused by infection. Bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites can cause pneumonia.

Now if a person smokes or is exposed to smoke, the chances of having Pneumonia increases due to the injury to the surface of the respiratory lining. Millions of microscopic hairs (cilia) cover the surface of the cells lining your bronchial tubes. The hairs beat in a wave-like fashion to clear your airways of normal secretions, but irritants such as tobacco smoke paralyze the cilia, causing secretions to accumulate. If these secretions contain bacteria, they can develop into pneumonia.

I hope I could clear your doubt, I would suggest you to talk to the adults who smoke around your sister and explain to them the injury that they are unconsciously causing to her. I wish you the best.