What is walking pneumonia?
Walking pneumonia is known as a milder form of pneumonia in medical circles. A person infected with walking pneumonia can recover far quickly with proper medical care and advice. However, it is to be noted that, ignorance might aggravate the situation and worsen the pneumonia. Unlike regular pneumonia, the difference with walking pneumonia is that it does not carry serious symptoms rather symptoms like simple headache, sore throat, running nose and fatigue.
When physicians diagnose someone with walking pneumonia, they are usually talking about an infection with an organism called Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Walking pneumonia is most common between the ages of 5 and 15, and accounts for 70% of pneumonias in children aged 9 to 15. As a rule, mycoplasma pneumoniae infections are not highly contagious. The onset is often so gradual that it may not be noticed at first. A decrease in energy level may be the earliest sign, followed by cold symptoms. The person may complain of a headache, runny nose, and sore throat, and sometimes may have a fever. Unlike a cold, it gradually gets worse over about two weeks, with an increasingly moist cough and possible hoarseness as the disease settles into the chest. Mycoplasma infections are easy to treat, although the antibiotics most commonly prescribed for children are not useful. Mycoplasma is exceptionally sensitive, however, to erythromycin, clarithromycin (Biaxin), azithromycin (Zithromax), and tetracyclines
