Walking pneumonia, or mycoplasmal pneumoniae, is an illness that
everyone can get, because it spreads through the air very easy if a
person infected with the bacteria that causes it sneezes or coughs.
Walking
pneumonia is a mild form of the disease that used to kill thousands
before the discovery of antibiotics and the pneumonia vaccination, but
it can be tricky because most of the people that have it confuse it with
influenza, and they use the wrong treatment for it, thus allowing it to
advance.
Children under the age of 15 are at a higher risk to get
this illness, but everybody can have it. It is known that it quickly
spreads in schools or army barracks, because in the institutions
mentioned above people stay close together and the microorganisms that
cause it enter the bodies of many.
Its first symptom is a mild
sore throat that gets worse as days pass. Then a dry cough shows up. As
its name suggests, walking pneumonia does not make the people that have
it stay in bed, its effects are not severe so the patient can tend to
his/her normal activities, but this is not recommended if he/she works
in an environment with many people. Also, one infected with walking
pneumonia will feel a general state of fatigue all the time.
The
main problem is that its symptoms are the same with the cold or
influenza symptoms. After the coughing a mild fever may also appear,
accompanied by a running nose, exactly the same when you have a cold.
The first clue that you do not have a simple cold is that the coughing
cannot be cured with the regular medication, because the bacteria that
cause pneumonia can only be treated with antibiotics. Furthermore,
although you took your regular cough medicine, it gets worse and worse
until you take antibiotics.
This can make walking pneumonia a
tricky, miserable disease, but once it is discovered it can very easily
be cured with just a few antibiotics. In a few days it will be gone, but
the hard part is to realize that you have pneumonia and not just a
cold.
Remembering the symptoms and facts mentioned above can spare you of the trouble of confusing walking pneumonia with influenza, but the best thing to do if you suspect that you have this illness is to consult your doctor as soon as you see that your cough gets worse although you are taking cough medicine.
Remembering the symptoms and facts mentioned above can spare you of the trouble of confusing walking pneumonia with influenza, but the best thing to do if you suspect that you have this illness is to consult your doctor as soon as you see that your cough gets worse although you are taking cough medicine.