Dozens of parents are coming forward online to warn others about a nasty infection called “walking pneumonia” that doctors are struggling to detect.
Among them is a mother from Georgia, who revealed that her young daughter was rushed to the emergency room and intubated after the cough caused by the illness did not subside.
“Mycoplasma (walking) pneumonia is no joke,” he said online. ‘This came without warning! She was only seen by her pediatrician 24 hours before.’
“Walking pneumonia” is a bacterial infection that can cause excessive coughing, but does not usually leave patients unable to perform daily tasks.
However, in recent years, it has led to more children being hospitalized, which experts say may be linked to Covid lockdowns blocking children’s exposure to good germs and weakening their immune systems as a result. .
At the same time, parents say doctors have difficulty diagnosing the condition in time, often dismissing it as a viral infection, cold or flu, delaying timely treatment for children.
Parents are also urging others to make sure their children undergo an X-ray, which can reveal “white spots” in the lungs leading to a diagnosis of pneumonia.
Among these parents was Ashley Hudson, a mother of two, in California, and she revealed that she was initially told that her 11-year-old son had a viral infection.
Whitney Wilkinson, a mother of three, said she took her son to urgent care after he had a persistent cough.
Mrs Wilkinson said her son was diagnosed by x-ray after spending a week suffering from a cough.
Dr Tibisi Villalobos, from Pennsylvania, warned: ‘We are seeing more serious diseases. We are seeing children who have fever for days, cough, do not feel well and end up in hospital, even in ICU, requiring oxygen and intensive care.’
Hudson revealed on TikTok that her 11-year-old son was so sick he was “coughing things up” and “could barely keep his eyes open” after being struck down by the illness and suffering from a cough and a 103F fever.
She took him in for a checkup for his cough and flu-like symptoms about two weeks ago, and doctors told her he had a viral infection and sent him home with instructions to take Tylenol to ease the illness.
But five days later, her son took a sudden turn and became “extremely ill.”
“He has a fever of 103F, he’s extremely sick, he can barely keep his eyes open, he has the worst migraine and he was saying, ‘I need to sleep.’ He had no appetite, he’s coughing,” she said.
‘(His cough)… doesn’t sound like he’s wheezing or anything, it’s more like congestion, common cold, viral infection, and then with the (other symptoms).’
She took him back to her pediatrician, where a second evaluation was performed and doctors also ordered an X-ray of his lungs.
The mother was told she would get the results in about an hour, but five minutes later she received a call from her doctor confirming the diagnosis of pneumonia.
Alma Geddes, center, is pictured with her siblings while she remains in a Baltimore hospital where she was treated for Mycoplasma pneumonia.
The little one has already been prescribed antibiotics, which should be able to combat the infection. But Hudson says her one-year-old son now seems unwell.
There are reports of increasing cases of “walking pneumonia,” caused by the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae, arriving from across the United States.
Last week, health officials in parts of Wisconsin and Illinois said they were seeing an increase among children. Then doctors in Fort Worth, Texas, and Washington, D.C., did the same.
And over the weekend, there were also reports of increases in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and Houston, Texas.
But at the same time, parents report that doctors repeatedly miss the infection or misdiagnose the disease.
In another case, a mother of two from Texas revealed how her 10-year-old son had also been diagnosed with walking pneumonia, but only after a visit to the emergency room.
Stephanie, who lives in San Antonio, said her son had been sick with a cough for about two weeks when she took him to the emergency room.
Doctors couldn’t diagnose her illness, but she later made an appointment with a pediatrician who said she had “walking pneumonia.”
Three-year-old Alma was one of several children that doctors at Greater Baltimore Medical Center have treated so far this year with pneumonia.
she said: ‘Lately, my son’s cough, it started out as a mild cough, but it got worse and worse. He was sleepy, you could tell, he was just uncomfortable.
‘My 10-year-old son finally sees his pediatrician, goes for his visit, and is diagnosed with this “walking pneumonia.” Apparently, these pediatricians and doctors are seeing a lot of cases.’
It is likely that the child was prescribed antibiotics to combat the infection, but that has not been confirmed.
In its alert last week, the CDC warned that cases of children with “walking pneumonia” admitted to the emergency room were on the rise, an unusual trend because ‘M. “Historically, pneumoniae has not been recognized as a major cause of pneumonia in this age group.”
From March to October the proportion of children aged two to four who were discharged with the disease increased from one to 7.4 percent.
And among ages five to 17, the CDC said the proportion increased from 3.6 percent to 7.4 percent during the same period.
Whitney Wilkinson, mother of three, was also among those to warn about pneumonia and revealed that her son had been diagnosed with the illness after battling a cough for a week.
Unlike viruses like the flu and RSV, which tend to strike in the colder months, outbreaks of mycoplasma infections can also occur in seemingly random clusters at schools and military bases at any time of the year.
The most prominent symptom is a lot of coughing, but others include a fluctuating fever, along with lethargy and fatigue.
While most patients have lung congestion that can be detected with a stethoscope, not all do. Additional symptoms may include headaches, sore throat, and, less commonly, a rash.