Nationwide Children's Hospital is reporting an unusually high number of cases of walking pneumonia.
The rise in cases has been happening since June with children as young as 2 years old being infected. Anyone can contract walking pneumonia, but doctors usually see it in people above the age of 5, according to Dr. Jason Newland, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
“We've not experienced this in a long time, this much mycoplasma or walking pneumonia,” Newland said.
The often-mild pneumonia is caused by a bacteria called mycoplasma. Some people recover without the use of antibiotics. Like other types of pneumonia, walking pneumonia infects the lungs.
“Thankfully, it's termed walking pneumonia because most of the time, you know, people feel bad, but they can walk around and do okay. Now, for some, it can be really severe,” Newland said. “Some of our families would tell you, 'man, it is not as mild as some would make you think.'”
Newland believes this summer’s spike, which occurred well outside of the typical cold and flu season, may have been caused in part by people gathering more as we get further away from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we've continued to do more and more and more stuff together over the last few years, we just found more susceptible groups,” Newland said.
Newland thinks the walking pneumonia numbers may be starting to trend down. As we head into cold and flu season, however, Newland said respiratory viruses like RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, are starting to rise.
He said the best way to help stop the spread of respiratory viruses this fall and winter is to follow the common-sense tactics people learned during the pandemic. These include hand washing, staying home when sick and wearing a mask.
“There are common sense things that we have learned through our experiences in the last four years that have definitely worked in preventing us from getting sick with one of these respiratory viruses,” Newland said.
