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Pneumonia has always been a common and deadly disease; in the pre-antibiotic era, mortality rates from pneumonia were 20% to 40%. Despite the availability of effective anti-infective agents and vaccines, pneumonia is currently the sixth leading cause of death in general (and the number one cause of death from infectious diseases) in Canada. The mortality rate among out patients with community-acquired pneumonia is low, but for hospitalized patients the mortality rate is still significant, at 10% to 25%.
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