According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2024 has seen an increase of mycoplasma pneumonia, or walking pneumonia cases - especially in children.
“We have seen over the past month and a half or two months a significant increase countrywide,” said Connecticut Children's Physician-in-Chief and infectious disease specialist Dr. Juan Salazar. “This is a disease that is common in the community and most of the time, kids are going to be having a mild illness.”
The respiratory infection can last for several weeks according to the CDC and symptoms can take up to four weeks to appear. Symptoms can resemble a cold; children may experience a runny nose, a cough, low-grade fever, watery eyes and in more severe cases vomiting or diarrhea, according to doctors.
“There’s no reason to panic with this. This is not a horrible epidemic or things that we have seen in the past,” said Salazar. “I think this year we’re catching up with bacteria that has not been seen over the last two or three years.”
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Doctors encourage anyone having severe symptoms to seek professional help.
“If a parent is seeing that they child is breathing very fast, not breathing well, not eating well, getting dehydrated, that would be a time for them to call the pediatrician,” said Salazar.
He says he expects the trend to go down but urges parents to stay up to date with vaccines and get the flu shot. The CDC also recommends washing hands, cover mouths and cover noses when coughing or sneezing to prevent the spread of germs.
