Why You Shouldn't Be Panicking About Pneumonia Outbreaks

Since the middle of October, there has been a surge of flulike respiratory illnesses in northern China, including a significant increase, compared with previous years, in the number of respiratory illnesses - such as pneumonia - among children. There have been reported increases in recent cases of childhood mycoplasma pneumonia not only in China but Singapore and several countries in Europe. Drug resistant mycoplasma can make rare, severe cases hard to treat, but drug resistance doesn't make it more transmissible or virulent, and it is not to blame for the current wave.7/. - Prof Francois Balloux December 1, 2023 Health authorities in Ohio's Warren County recently reported an outbreak of 145 cases of childhood pneumonia beginning in August without any resulting in severe illness or death. Widespread media coverage of a pneumonia spike in western Massachusetts was dispelled Friday by pediatrician John Kelley, whose comments to a local news outlet about how children with RSV sometimes develop pneumonia were inaccurately reported as confirmation of a second outbreak. Kelley told The Washington Post he is not seeing unusual pneumonia trends or any parallels to China in his office. The CDC said on Friday that it is monitoring the increases in respiratory illnesses around the world and reported that the current rates of pediatric pneumonia in the U.S. are roughly similar with previous years'. Any pneumonia appears as a white opacity on an x-ray or CT, which is partly how the diagnosis of pneumonia is made.