Mumbai: In keeping with an international trend, the city’s children seem to be getting infected by mycoplasma pneumoniae—a bacterium that usually causes such mild pneumonia that it is better known as ‘walking pneumonia’—in higher numbers.
“We are noticing more cases than in the last few months,” said Dr Aoyon Sengupta, paediatric intensivist at SRCC Children’s Hospital, Mahalaxmi. While the majority of cases don’t need hospitalisation, Dr Sengupta says four children got in ICU.
Worldwide, doctors have reported a rise in the incidence of walking pneumonia since 2023. The disease is usually found in children and youngsters, but has been reported in adults as well. The US Centers for Disease Control in October published that “the proportion of patients discharged from emergency… with a diagnosis of M. pneumoniae-associated pneumonia or acute bronchitis has increased over the past six months, peaking in late August”. The US reports 2 million walking pneumonia infections every year.
In the January edition of ‘Euro Surveillance’, an indexed medical journal, Dutch doctors reported a “rise in admissions starting Oct 2023”. The incidence in the Netherlands has not been that high since 2011. The Dutch doctors offered two reasons: children were getting affected because of post-Covid drop in herd immunity; due to Covid, there is a tendency to conduct various tests for patients coming in with respiratory symptoms.
“Previously, there were no easy or quick tests to detect walking pneumonia, but now multiple tests are available,” said a medical teacher from a public hospital. Many hospitals now offer molecular tests that are expensive but identify microorganisms within a couple of hours. “Mycoplasma pneumoniae isn’t a new entity; it has been around for a long time. We don’t know as yet why it’s more prevalent this year,” said Dr Sengupta. SRCC Hospital has had multiple admissions and many cases in OPD this year.
Dr Bhupendra Avasthi from Surya Children’s Hospital, Santacruz, concurred. “This year, we have not only noted an increase in cases, but 25% of diagnosed children have needed hospitalisation,” he said, calling for a need to create awareness about walking pneumonia because children could otherwise be given wrong medication.
“When doctors encounter a bacterial infection, the tendency is to write augmentin or a similar antibiotic. But the walking pneumonia-causing bacterium doesn’t respond to these,” said Dr Avasthi. “It only responds to macrolides like azithromycin or erythromycin. And while tetracyclines would work as well, it’s not recommended for children.”
