BUFFALO, N.Y. — The season for sneezing, coughing, and you know the rest is here.
If your child is coughing and it's a lingering cough, health experts suggest you keep an eye on it. Cases of mycoplasma pneumonia, also known as walking pneumonia, are rising across the country.
Dr. Geovanny Perez is the medical director of the lung center at Oishei Children's Hospital. He said "if you look at the CDC data, there is a spike, even in New York and then a little bit in Western New York, is probably like, around, maybe 2% to 7% so we've seen a the spike."
Dr. Perez is also the Clinical Associate Professor and Division Chief, Pulmonology, and Sleep Medicine with the Pediatrics department with the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.
While it is not easy to diagnose because the symptoms are similar to other respiratory infections and colds, the doctor said it is contagious.
"Ninety percent of the household members can get mycoplasma pneumonia, so yes, it can be easily spread, and it's tricky because, like kids or adults, they can carry the bacteria, and they can be asymptomatic," he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a surge in mycoplasma pneumonia.
Dr. Perez admonishes people to remember symptoms can mimic a cold, but they are more persistent when it comes to coughing and difficulty breathing.
A physician will be able to listen to a patient's lungs and if they hear a crackling sound this can suggest it may be pneumonia.
"Signs that anybody need to look for are once again, a prolonged cough, fever," that doesn't seem to go away for three or four days.
He added: "Kids that are just wanting to sleep and they are not doing the regular activities, remember that kids, they always want to be like playing and having fun. So if there's a kid just laying down on the couch too sleepy, they are not eating, or they are not peeing, especially younger kids, if they are not wetting diapers, all of those are signs of what we call signs of alarm that should trigger a visit to the pediatrician, or, in the worst case scenario, even to the emergency room."
"Mycoplasma pneumonia is called walking pneumonia, because a lot of times you see a patient, and you see a kid, and yes, they are coughing, and they still like walking and doing things that they regularly do. But then you do a chest X-ray, and then the chest X-ray showed, yes, there's a pneumonia here, and they need to be treated with antibiotics."