[4] Other ways for a diagnosis to be obtained is by ordering a chest X-ray, blood tests, pulse oximetry, and a medical/family history to see if there are any known risks or previous exposures to a person with viral pneumonia.
[7] In the pre-antibiotic age, pneumonias had been treated with specific anti-serums of highly variable therapeutic effect and undesirable side-effects (a practice eliminated by the advent of sulfamides in 1936 and the beginning availability of penicillin in the 1940s).
Reimann, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, had established the practice of routinely typing the pneumococcal organism in cases where pneumonia presented.
White blood cells, in particular lymphocytes, are responsible for activating a variety of chemicals (cytokines) which cause leaking of fluid into the alveoli.
[11][12] Besides vaccination there are no other ways to prevent viral pneumonia besides basic hygiene skills like covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing, staying home when sick, and washing your hands frequently.
In cases of viral pneumonia where influenza A or B are thought to be causative agents, patients who are seen within 48 hours of symptom onset may benefit from treatment with oseltamivir, or zanamivir, or peramivir.
[13] Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has no direct acting treatments, but ribavirin is indicated for severe cases.
Other forms of care are largely supportive like oxygen supplementation, treatment of comorbidities, and controlling other symptoms, fever and cough, with medications.