What is walking pneumonia? How is it different from regular pneumonia?
Walking pneumonia is an informal term for pneumonia that isn’t severe enough to require bed rest or hospitalization. When you have walking pneumonia, you’re still able to walk around and maybe even work. Chances are you won’t see a doctor for your mild symptoms. If you do see a doctor, you may not seem sick enough to need a chest X-ray, which is the only way to diagnose any kind of pneumonia. As a result, walking pneumonia tends not to be diagnosed as pneumonia unless it progresses to a more severe form, which is unusual. Walking pneumonia is often caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a species of bacteria. Symptoms of Mycoplasma pneumonia are often milder and appear more gradually than do those of other types of pneumonia. When needed, treatment is with antibiotics. Viral pneumonia also can be very mild and may be referred to as walking pneumonia, particularly in children and adolescents.
