Whether pneumonia symptoms are severe needs to be based on the patient's clinical presentation and the extent of infection seen in imaging studies. Through these assessments, one can generally determine the severity of the patient's infection and thus comment on the severity of the disease.

Pneumonia is generally most commonly seen due to bacterial infections, but there are also instances of fungal, mycoplasma, and viral infections in clinical settings, which have become relatively more common than before. When these infections occur, it is necessary to identify the pathogen, and then choose an antibiotic susceptible to the pathogen based on bacterial culture and sensitivity tests. Generally, lung infections can be cured.