United States: According to recent reports, US pediatricians are witnessing an alarming rise in mycoplasma pneumonia.
Additionally, the reports from St. Joseph County suggest that infected teenagers are facing hospitalization longer than what usually takes.
More about the news
According to Dr. Karen Davis, Pediatric Hospitalist at Saint Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, “It’s specifically mycoplasma pneumonia in this age group, which, mycoplasma is what we call an atypical pneumonia. So, not the bacteria that we normally expect to cause pneumonia,” wsbt.com reported.
“And so it is more common in that age group, and what we’re seeing is that number seems to be a lot higher than it has in years past, and that’s other physicians’ experience throughout the nation as well,” he added.
Therefore, reports suggest that the severity of the symptoms in teens is unusual.
What more are the experts stating?
According to Davis, “So, I’m definitely seeing a lot more here in the hospital. Kids get pneumonia, but the overwhelming majority, especially in that age group, don’t necessarily end up being hospitalized. So, this year has definitely been out of the ordinary in that I’ve had quite a few kids end up admitted to the hospital because they’re requiring oxygen or just having a lot more severe symptoms,” wsbt.com reported.
More about Mycoplasma
Mycoplasma is an infection caused by bacteria, which leads to inflammation in the lungs, which makes the body feel that there is an “unfriendly” foreign object that needs to be removed.
Moreover, as St. Joe County Health Officer Dr. Michelle Migliore, “Mycoplasma requires a specific type of antibiotic to be treated. It does not respond normally to the normal antibiotics that we use with children. A lot of times kids will get amoxicillin or the pink stuff that tastes like bubble gum as they often say. But mycoplasma requires what is called a macrolide, a type of antibiotic that’s in the class of macrolide.”