What is ‘walking pneumonia’ and why are cases among kids surging?

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Area hospitals are seeing an increase in the number of kids with walking pneumonia coming through their doors, an early twist as respiratory virus season gets underway. Here’s what you need to know.  

What is walking pneumonia?

Walking pneumonia, or mycoplasma pneumoniae, is a mild lung infection. Its name is a reference to the fact people with this type of pneumonia are typically not as sick as others and are not laid up in hospital or at home. 

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In kids, the condition causes the patient to feel generally unwell with headache, fever and sore throat that most parents will manage as a cold, said St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital chief of staff Erica Van Daalen. 

After several days elapse with no improvement, the parents seek medical care for their kids, she said.  

The condition is treated with a readily available class of antibiotic, Van Daalen said.  

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last month announced walking pneumonia infections have been on the rise in recent months, particularly among young children.  

The situation in the London area

Children’s Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre has been seeing more kids presenting with pneumonia in the past two to three weeks, said Rod Lim, medical director of the pediatric emergency room. 

“We’re definitely seeing high percentages of walking pneumonia. Especially when we do X-rays, we’re seeing a very high percentage positivity out there right now,” said Lim, adding the disease tends to come in cycles.  

“Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is the cause of walking pneumonia, is something we see every three or so years. It tends to flare at times, but we’re facing quite a large amount of it right now.”   

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The St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital’s emergency room is experiencing an “uptick” in the number of people coming in with pneumonia, a common occurrence at this time of the year, Van Daalen said. 

“Unique to this season are the children who are presenting with prolonged cough, intermittent fevers or previous antibiotic trials without improvement,” she said, adding these young patients “appear well maybe even attending school or community events.” 

The local spate of walking pneumonia cases is coming just ahead of the anticipated start of the respiratory virus season surge, Lim said, which is still weeks away. 

Walking pneumonia prevention and treatment

Van Daalen is urging parents not to send their kids out into the community if they’re running a fever or have a new cough. Proper hand hygiene is also a must to prevent illness, she said.  

Armed with the knowledge that walking pneumonia is circulating in the community, parents who are worried about their kids’ persistent respiratory symptoms should seek care from their primary care provider sooner, Lim said,

“It is contagious and it tends to spread within households,” he said, adding people who are sick should stay home and away from vulnerable populations, like seniors and people with complex medical conditions.  

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It is often difficult to differentiate typical pneumonia, from the atypical, walking pneumonia, said Asmaa Hussain, chief of pediatrics at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital.

“If a child was seen and diagnosed with pneumonia and did not respond well to the antibiotic provided after a few days, it is important to seek reassessment as the antibiotic might not be the appropriate antibiotic for the kind of bacteria they have,” Hussain said in an email Wednesday.

jbieman@postmedia.com

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