Cases of Atypical Pneumonia — Also Known as ‘Walking Pneumonia’ — Are Surging in Kids. Should You Be Worried?

• US Centers for Disease Control announces rise in pediatric cases of ‘walking pneumonia’
• The jump happens “every few years,” Dr. Matthew Isaac Harris, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at New York-based Northwell Health, tells PEOPLE.
• dr. Harris says the infection is “very treatable” with antibiotics and advises parents to skip over-the-counter cough medicines

Cases of atypical pneumonia (also known as “walking pneumonia”) — which is a lung infection caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae — are on the rise in the U.S., and the number of cases in children is rising so sharply that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a warning on Friday, October 18.

But what exactly is walking pneumonia?

“Walking pneumonia is a layman’s term for a type of pneumonia that we medically call atypical pneumonia. It just means that they [the patients] don’t follow the normal course of fever, cough, and acute exacerbation,” Matthew Isaac Harris, MD, a pediatric emergency medicine physician and medical director for Critical Care Transport at New York-based Northwell Health, tells PEOPLE.

X-ray of lungs with pneumonia.

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“Clinically, they look better than the average bear,” he explains, adding that these less severe symptoms can lead to a delayed diagnosis.

“They have maybe a week to two weeks of worsening cough. Sometimes it’s a fever,” says Dr. Harris. “They don’t have that classic three to four days of high fever, productive cough that you see with more classic pneumonia.”

But while the number of cases is increasing, “this is not a unique year”, adds the doctor. “We have these bouts of mycoplasmal pneumonia every few years.”

As for why it spreads among children, he explains: “They’re constantly coughing in small classrooms or kindergartens or playrooms. The things that put children at greater risk are just their exposure to other children constantly coughing around them.”

“This year the increase happens every few years,” he explained. “It’s very contagious.”

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The good news, Dr. Harris tells PEOPLE, is that it’s “very, very treatable” with antibiotics — generally azithromycin, which he explained is “colloquially known as the Z-pack.”

“It’s once a day for five days, so this is not the time to have to fight with your child three times a day trying to get a large amount of antibiotics,” he tells PEOPLE.

And no matter how quickly your child recovers, “it’s critical to complete the full course.”

However, Dr. Harris also advises parents to avoid over-the-counter cough medicines.

“Children tolerate honey very well. Honey is a natural cough remedy. I would encourage parents not to use cough medicines on children that have not been approved by their pediatrician.”

Stock image of honey in a jar.

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Although the CDC has issued a warning, Dr. Harris says “we are in the cautionary phase.”

“Watch for those signs of respiratory distress, which again is something for younger kids under 2. Older kids will tell you they don’t feel well.”

He advised parents to look out for symptoms including “faster breathing, not drinking as much, maybe not urinating as much because they’re not drinking”.

“We don’t want parents running to the pediatrician every time their child has a cough,” says the doctor, before noting that “it’s just that cough that slowly gets worse and has a low-grade fever after a week to 10 days and doesn’t get better. It’s really time to see your pediatrician.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education