Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill’s “sudden and unexpected” death has reportedly been linked to pneumonia, a serious lung infection that claims around 25,000 lives in Britain each year.
The death of the 78-year-old star may have shocked many fans, particularly after he revealed in April that his blood cancer was in remission. His agent said Neill was “cancer-free” at the time of his passing.
However, Neill is far from the only high-profile name in recent years whose death has been associated with pneumonia.
The illness was also listed on the death certificates of Val Kilmer and Diane Keaton last year, who died aged 65 and 79, respectively.
In December, Ibiza-based businessman Wayne Lineker, 63, the brother of football presenter Gary Lineker, said he too had come close to dying from the debilitating respiratory condition. He told followers he had been admitted to hospital after a virus contracted in Dubai left him fighting for his life, warning that his recovery could take months.
Medical experts have now told the Daily Mail that pneumonia should not be seen simply as an illness affecting older people, despite once being dubbed the “old man’s friend” because it was thought to bring a relatively peaceful and painless death.
Doctors warn that pneumonia can sometimes cause only mild or vague symptoms, allowing it to go unnoticed and untreated. In some cases, that delay can lead to lasting damage to the lungs.
Here, health specialists explain the key pneumonia warning signs to watch for, and who may be most at risk from the potentially life-threatening infection.
Sam Neill, who starred in the Jurassic Park films, died from pneumonia on Monday aged 78
Diane Keaton, whose acting career spanned more than five decades, died from bacterial pneumonia at the age of 79 last October
According to Professor Paul Hunter, a virus expert at the University of East Anglia, pneumonia is an infection ‘in the deep part of the lungs where oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer between your blood and the atmosphere’.
There are two main types: viral pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia.
Viral pneumonia – caused by viruses such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Covid – is generally milder, although it can sometimes be severe.
Meanwhile, bacterial pneumonia – when bacteria enter and infect the lungs – is often more serious and may require treatment.
Untreated bacterial infections like pneumococcal pneumonia ‘can have quite a high mortality rate’, Professor Hunter said.
In rarer cases, pneumonia can develop after food, drink or vomit enters the lungs instead of air. This is known as aspiration pneumonia.
More people die from pneumonia in Britain than anywhere else in Europe, according to lung charity Asthma and Lung UK.
Meanwhile in the US there are around 42,000 deaths per year.
Those with weakened immune systems, such as patients undergoing cancer treatment, elderly people or babies, are more vulnerable to pneumonia, Prof Hunter says.
Not only are they more likely to contract an infection that triggers the condition, their body may struggle to stop it progressing and reaching the lungs.
However, pneumonia can affect anyone – and can be life-threatening at any age.
It is the leading cause of death among children under five, killing more than 700,000 children per year.
‘People can get pneumonia throughout their life. It’s more lethal at the extremes of age in the very young and the very old,’ he said.
‘Globally, deaths from chest infections, most of which are pneumonia, are one of the more common causes of deaths in children, and most of those are in low income countries.
‘But you can get pneumonia throughout life and you can actually die from it throughout life.’
Perhaps the most difficult-to-spot type of the disease is so-called silent pneumonia, sometimes called ‘walking’ pneumonia due to its low impact on patients’ daily lives.
In other words, those with the condition can go to work, do exercise and generally go about their daily lives while experiencing little more than a mild cough.
But experts say if a cough or cold symptoms have continued for more than three weeks it’s important to seek medical help.
While most healthy people will eventually clear silent pneumonia without treatment, those with respiratory conditions like asthma may struggle – and the longer the lung inflammation persists, the higher the risk of long-term damage.
Many with ‘walking’ pneumonia may also still be harbouring a contagious infection which can be easily passed on to vulnerable friends and family.
If a GP suspects pneumonia they may offer antibiotics or refer patients for scans of the lungs to confirm the diagnosis and assess potential damage.
For more obvious cases, symptoms include a cough that produces mucus, shortness of breath, a high temperature, chest pain and body aches.
Fatigue, loss of appetite and wheezing are also common.
Babies suffering the condition will make grunting noises when breathing, experts advise. Elderly people, meanwhile, may also become confused.
Val Kilmer died from pneumonia aged 65 last April having previously suffered throat cancer
Prof Hunter said the main symptoms to watch out for are ‘coughing and breathlessness’.
It is possible to check if you’re likely to be suffering the illness by testing your blood oxygen levels, he adds – this indicates how efficiently oxygen is travelling from your lungs to your bloodstream.
This is done using a tool called a pulse oximeter – a device which, when clipped to the end of a finger, shines light through the skin to measure oxygen in the blood.
Prof Hunter advises that these are available to buy from many high street pharmacies, and were made popular during the Covid lockdowns with thousands investing in them for peace of mind.
Readings of around 92 per cent or lower should prompt people to seek medical attention, he warned.
Fortunately most people who develop pneumonia will not become seriously ill. And of those who do end up hospitalised, roughly 15 per cent die within a month of admission.
This figure rises to around 30 per cent if a patient is admitted to the intensive care unit.
People treated in hospital are usually given antibiotics, fluids and sometimes steroids to help fight the infection, as well as oxygen if they are struggling to breathe.
Prof Hunter says there are highly effective ways to protect yourself from pneumonia – for example, by staying up to date with pneumococcal, flu, RSV and Covid vaccines.
Stopping smoking can also dramatically reduce the risk.
Just 25 per cent of adults in the US have received the pneumococcal vaccine, while almost three quarters of Britons over 65 have taken the jab.
