Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, began seeing a rise of mycoplasma pneumonia in patients in April, and since then, they've unexpectedly increased.
As of late June, the hospital had 80 positive cases out of 398 patients — almost a 20% positivity rate systemwide, it reported July 1. Last year, during the same time frame, the hospital had 0 cases of what's also commonly called "walking pneumonia", according to the news release.
"This is a really common bacterial infection that's been around for a long time," Nicholas Rister, MD, a physician at Cook Children's Infectious Disease - Dodson Specialty Clinics, said in an accompanying video announcement. "We've just been seeing really elevated rates of it in our community over the past month."
Mycoplasma pneumonia can spread through the air via coughing or sneezing and in a small percentage of cases, hospitalization can be necessary.
"When people need hospital care due to pneumonia, M. pneumoniae are a common bacterial cause of the infection," according to the CDC. "For children, they're the most common cause."
The bacteria can take between one and four weeks for symptoms to begin after exposure, if infected.
The most at-risk group for infections are school age children and young adults, and this year, Cook Children's is seeing infections across a span of ages, it reported.
Infection can be prevented with handwashing and hygiene, but there is no vaccine for M. pneumonia currently.