- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced an increase in pediatric cases of “walking pneumonia”
- A spike happens “every couple of years,” Dr. Matthew Isaac Harris, pediatric emergency medicine physician at the New York-based Northwell Health, tells PEOPLE
- Dr. Harris says the infection is “very treatable” with antibiotics, and advised parents to skip over-the-counter cough medicine
Cases of atypical pneumonia (also known as “walking pneumonia”) — which is a lung infection caused by the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae — are on the rise in the U.S., with children’s cases rising so sharply that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued an alert on Friday, Oct. 18.
But what exactly is walking pneumonia?
“Walking pneumonia is a layman’s term for a type of pneumonia that, in medical terms, we call atypical pneumonia. That just means that they [the patients] don’t follow the sort of normal course of fever, cough and acute worsening,” Dr. Matthew Isaac Harris, a pediatric emergency medicine physician and the medical director for Critical Care Transport at the New York-based Northwell Health, tells PEOPLE.
X-Ray of lungs with pneumonia.
Getty
“They look clinically 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 some fever,” Dr. Harris says. “They don’t have that classic three-to-four days of high fever, productive cough that you might see in the more classic pneumonia.”
But while cases are rising, ”this isn’t a unique year,” the doctor adds. “We do have these spurts of mycoplasma pneumonia every couple of years.”
As for why it’s spreading among children, he explains, “They’re constantly coughing in small classrooms or in nursery school or in playgroups. The things that put kids at higher risk are just their exposure to other kids who are constantly coughing in their vicinity.”
“The spike this year happens every couple of years,” he explained. “It is highly infectious.”
The good news, Dr. Harris tells PEOPLE, is that it’s “very, very treatable” with antibiotics — generally azithromycin, which he explained is “more colloquially known as the Z-pack.”
“It’s once a day for five days, so this is not the time you’re gonna have to struggle with your kid three times a day trying to get in a large volume of antibiotics,” he tells PEOPLE.
And no matter how quickly your child recovers, “it’s critically important to complete the whole course.”
However, Dr. Harris also advises parents to avoid over-the-counter cough medications.
“Kids tolerate honey very well. Honey is a natural anti-cough medication. I would encourage parents not to to use any cough medications in children that are not approved by their pediatrician.”
Stock image of honey in a jar.
Getty
Although the CDC issued an alert, Dr. Harris says “we’re in the stage of be mindful.”
“Look out for those signs of respiratory distress, which is really something again for younger children under the age of 2. Older kids will tell you they’re not feeling well.”
He advised parents to watch for symptoms including “breathing faster, not drinking as much, maybe not peeing as much because they’re not drinking.”
“We do not want parents to run to the pediatrician every time their child’s coughing,” the doctor says, before noting that “it really is just that cough that’s slowly worsening and having low grade fevers after a week to 10 days, not getting better, That’s really the time to go see your pediatrician.”
