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For healthy persons, the answer is NO.
In theory, pneumonia may be contagious. In practice, it hardly ever happens that a healthy person "catches" pneumonia from someone else.
But for those already weak from illness, especially those staying in hospitals and other medical care facilities, then the answer is one big YES.
In fact, the hospital is one of the best places to "catch" pneumonia. And this form of pneumonia tends to be more serious.
There is even a medical term for it -- hospital acquired pneumonia. The Medical Encyclopedia writes...
Hospital-acquired pneumonia tends to be more serious, because a patient's defense mechanisms against infection are often impaired during a hospital stay. In addition, the types of germs present in a hospital are often more dangerous than those encountered in the community.
Hospital-acquired pneumonia occurs more often in patients who require a respirator (also called a breathing machine or ventilator) to help them breathe. When pneumonia occurs in a patient who is on a ventilator, it is known as ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Yet only the patients catch this disease from one another, or perhaps even from hospital equipment like respirators. Doctors, nurses, hospital staff and visitors do not normally catch pneumonia from patients.
So you need not worry too much about catching pneumonia if you visit and come into close contact with a person who has illness, or even if you take care of the person and live in the same house.
Other contagious diseases
Very often, however, a person with pneumonia also has some other disease, such as the flu or a throat infection, which may be contagious. So there is a risk that you may catch this other disease.
And if your health is poor and your immune system is weak, then there is also a risk that you might also develop pneumonia later on. If that happens, it is because you are weak and you develop pneumonia on your own, not because you "caught" pneumonia from somebody.
If you are healthy, there is no need to worry. Is pneumonia contagious for you? No.
Why do people ask: Is pneumonia contagious?
Then why do people ask: Is pneumonia contagious? One reason is because pneumonia is a killer disease.
In warning about the flu, many government health authorities -- and pharmaceutical companies -- cite flu death statistics that say tens of thousand of people die from the flu each year. Actually, only a few hundred people, at most, die directly from the flu. The vast majority die from pneumonia.
A lot of people with cancer, Aids and other illnesses also die from pneumonia rather than from the disease they suffer from. Likewise, people who die from "complications" after surgery usually die from pneumonia as well.
So it is only natural that people are concerned.
Is pneumonia contagious like other infectious diseases?
The other reason for concern stems from the fact that, according to the medical establishment, pneumonia is an "infectious disease" caused by virus, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and other "disease causing agents".
Such diseases, like the flu, Aids, hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria, bubonic plague, etc, are contagious. They can be passed on from one person to another through various means -- through the air, direct personal contact, sexual relations, mosquito bites, flea bites and so on.
Pneunomia is classified in the same category as an infectious disease. Yet we never hear about pneumonia being passed on from one person to another. So this makes many people wonder... is pneumonia contagious?
And this is the problem. Although pneumonia is classified and described as an infectious disease, it is not normally infectious ir contagious. It infects only those who are already weak to begin with, not just anyone.
According to the germ theory of disease, which is one of the pillars of modern medical science, specific infectious diseases are caused -- and spread -- by specific disease-causing agents. For example, the flu is caused by the flu virus, tuberculosis is caused by the tuberculosis bacteria, malaria is caused by the malaria parasite, and so on.
Pneumonia does not fit into this theory, since it has so many possible causes. Pneumonia could be caused by a virus, a bacteria, a fungi, a parasite... it could also be caused by "unknown causes". It is not a case of one type of "germ" causing one type of disease.
All this suggests that pneumonia is more of a body condition than an infectious disease. It is a condition in which the lungs weaken and degenerate and victims experience symptoms such as difficulty in breathing, fluid accumulation in the lungs and overall extreme weakness.
Sure, some virus, bacteria, fungi or parasite may be present. The alternative explanation is that these "germs" are attracted to a body that is weak. The person falls ill first. Then the germs come.
In other words, disease "cause" germs to flourish. This is opposite to the germ theory of disease, which states that germs cause disease.
If pneumonia is, in fact, a condition of the body, then it is similar to say, a fever, or high blood pressure, or diabetes or some other condition. We don't normally ask whether high blood pressure or diabetes is contagious. So why then do we ask: Is pneumonia contagious?
Click here to read a fuller discussion about the causes of pneumonia, why pneumonia is more of a body condition than an infectious disease, and why we should not be asking Is pneumonia contagious?