Word: pneumonia
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Last week, during an executive session, the committee agreed on Baker's plan to draft a letter to the President requesting a meeting to resolve the question of the documents. Then Ervin put through a call to the President, who at that moment was trying to ignore his pneumonia. "We really need those documents," Ervin told Nixon. "And we need to discuss the matter with you." Ervin went on to explain that documents dealing with politics or alleged illegal conduct could not be covered by Executive privilege. "What I really want," said Ervin, "is for me and Howard Baker...
...Viral pneumonia is sometimes known, as Senator Sam Ervin Jr. referred to it in his lip-smackin' drawl, as "walkin' pneumonia." Often, as Dr. David J. Sencer of the U.S. Center for Disease Control pointed out, it is no worse than a bad cold or a touch of flu. But for some victims, especially those over 50, the bug that hospitalized President Nixon last week is a misery-making, debilitating illness. Victims can be reassured by the fact that viral pneumonia proves fatal in less than 1% of cases...
...forms of pneumonia are inflammations of the inner surface of the lungs. The classic form, deservedly dreaded before the era of sulfa drugs and antibiotics, is caused by bacteria. The vast majority of these cases can now be cured by drug treatment. More puzzling to specialists in infectious diseases has been the viral variety that attacked the President. This may be caused by any one of scores of different viruses, from those responsible for the common cold and laryngitis to those associated with measles and influenza. Infections provoked by these viruses do not yield to any known drugs, since medication...
Actually, one common form of "viral" pneumonia is caused by an organism that is neither a bacterium nor a virus. Known as Mycoplasma pneumoniae, or the "Eaton agent" (named for its discoverer), it is the smallest free-living agent capable of infecting man. The microbe is best known for downing whole barracks or dormitories of victims at a time. One of the few advantages of having Mycoplasma pneumonia is that, like the bacterial forms, it is susceptible to attack by antibiotics...
When Dr. Walter R. Tkach, Nixon's personal physician since 1969, concluded that his patient was suffering from viral pneumonia, he knew that it might take several days for lab tests to determine whether the infecting agent was Mycoplasma or a true virus. He decided to administer an antibiotic immediately on the theory that it might help. Though Tkach declined to identify the medicine, it was probably erythromycin or one of the tetracyclines, which are frequently prescribed for Mycoplasma pneumonia. From X rays, he concluded that only the lower lobe of Nixon's right lung was inflamed...