Walking pneumonia, although sounds different, is one of the types of pneumonia. It is not as harmful as the other types but does have some similarities. Here, we will explore the symptoms and understand how to fight this condition.
Atypical pneumonia is another name of walking pneumonia that happens due to a bacterium called Mycoplasma pneumonia. Find out all about this condition as you read below.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of this disease are so mild that initially, one could not detect the disease easily; it’s like the person only suffers from common cold and cough. Normally, the symptoms will start showing after two weeks of detection of the disease and will prominently start showing its effect after one month of suffering.
- The suffering person will feel a dry, painful throat. It is a bacterial disease, and it mostly affects the upper and lower respiratory tract so the suffering person will feel this dry and sore throat throughout the existence of the disease.
- The patient also feels inflammation in the main pipe and the branch pipes of his or her respiratory system.
- A persistent cough will hamper you a lot if you are suffering from this. Coughing with mucus is a very common symptom of this kind of pneumonia. This persistent cough can stay for a short interval or can stay for a little longer.
- Headache is another common symptom of this disease, and the suffering person will feel discomfort and pain in the scalp, head or neck.
- Symptoms of this disease depend on where the infection has been happened, such as if the upper respiratory tract has been affected then the patient will suffer from breathing problems like the patient can feel labored breathing. Whereas if the patient has been affected by the lower respiratory tract, then he or she will suffer from vomiting issues, nausea, and stomach problems.
There are also other symptoms like abdominal pain, chest pain, wheezing, flu-like symptoms, rapid breathing and loss of appetite, etc.
Walking pneumonia symptom in kids
Walking pneumonia symptoms can be seen in the children; also, few symptoms are specifically seen in the children and infants.
- The coughing problem is the most common symptom for the children as well as the adult also. The cough will stay for more than seven days.
- The suffering infant and child will suffer from fever with 101-degree Fahrenheit.
- The patient will feel pain in the scalp and head along with chills, and the headache is the cause of constant discomfort.
- Chest and rib pain will hamper the children, and this is one of the specific symptoms for the children of walking pneumonia.
- If the patient is suffering from this disease in the upper respiratory tract, then the patient will feel the labored breathing problem.
- Apart from all these, wheezing and general discomfort are common issues during this disease.
What causes Walking pneumonia?
According to the research, walking pneumonia is mainly caused by atypical bacteria called Mycoplasma Pneumonia. The places where it grows in the human body are the nose, windpipe, throat, and lungs. Apart from this bacterium, viruses, inhaled food, chemicals, fungi are also responsible for cause walking pneumonia.
Treatment
Before you will go to the hospital or will go to the doctor for the treatment of walking pneumonia, firstly, what you can do is you can treat your disease in the home only. That is called primary treatment for this disease.
Home treatment
- A medicine called acetaminophen is the perfect solution for the fever the patient suffers during this disease.
- The doctors advise patients of this disease to avoid cough suppressant medicine as, according to the doctors’ cough suppressant medicine makes the cough harder to be productive.
- Patients must keep taking lots of water and other healthy fluids, and they need to rest as much as possible.
- If these homely treatments are not effective, then the patient must have to go for the doctors for check-ups.
Medical treatment
Doctors can help the patient by prescribing some antibiotics and all you need to do is to go through the antibiotic treatment properly. You have to take all the medicines properly and also need to finish the course, even if you feel better after taking some medicines from the doctor’s prescription initially.
Some patients with serious health issues for this disease have to admit to the hospital and need to stay there sometimes until they get fully recovered by antibiotic therapy if the patient has been affected by any atypical bacteria. In the hospital, the patients are kept in the full medical observation and there they have to take intravenous fluid. If the patient is suffering from upper respiratory problems, then the patient will undergo respiratory therapy.
There is no vaccination therapy for this disease and this disease can happen twice or more than that. So, prevention is the only thing you can do to avoid this disease. Especially for the children, the parents should take extra care as they mostly get contacted with the bacteria in the school, playground, and also they can take uncovered food from anywhere and take the food without washing the plates and their hands. There are some hygiene factors all needed to maintain to prevent walking pneumonia.
Hygiene factors that need to maintain
- Use plates after proper washing and cleaning and also take foods after washing the hands properly with shops and hand washes.
- Use tissues for sneezing and coughing and throw those out immediately after use.
- Don’t eat any shared foods or fruits and also avoid sharing foods, utensils, and cups.
- Keep the foods covered and store those in a hygiene place.
Types of walking pneumonia
There are a few kinds of bacteria that are responsible for this. According to the doctors, this disease is caused by a kind of atypical bacteria. But there are also some kinds of bacteria available within the atypical bacteria.
Mycoplasma pneumonia
This is the most common kind of pneumonia available in the nose, throat, windpipes of the suffering person. 10 persons out of 50 suffer from Mycoplasma pneumonia in the USA, according to a recent survey by the health experts. It is also a comparatively less effective type of walking pneumonia than other types of walking pneumonia and this is merely seen among the children.
Chlamydial pneumonia
School-aged children also get affected by this kind of pneumonia. As per a recent report, there are around 300,000 children every year, affected by this disease. Symptoms are similar to the walking pneumonia symptoms of Mycoplasma pneumonia.
Legionella pneumonia
This is the most serious and dangerous kind of walking pneumonia. After the detection of this pneumonia, the patient might have to admit to the hospital for fully medical observation. It affects the patient’s respiratory system so advanced that the patient can suffer from serious breathing problems even if death can happen. This disease is not caused by the contraction with any other person who is suffering from the same disease, but the droplets mainly cause it from the contaminated water system. It mainly affects the adults out there with some chronic symptoms and during the suffering period, the immune system of human health gets weaker graded. According to a recent survey, 5000 people every year suffer from this disease.
Risk factors of walking pneumonia
Though this is a disease that is caused by different kinds of atypical bacteria, but also somewhere, some factors are responsible for this kind of disease, or the factors are also responsible for increasing the chances of happening the disease. Here some risk factors of walking pneumonia.
- The people who are between 2 years to 65 years, ranging in age, must be careful and should be aware of the risk factors of t5his disease and should handle bit by preventing the disease initially.
- Someone suffering from impaired immunity disease should be more careful of the symptoms.
- People who take immunosuppressant drugs have more chances to get this disease.
- Patients of the chronic pulmonary obstructive disease have higher chances of getting affected by this disease. This disease mainly affects the respiratory system of the human body. So, the person who already has some chronic respiratory issue can be suffered from this disease also.
- Inhaled corticosteroid taker for a long time has more chances to have walking pneumonia.
- Tobacco smokers are the most affected persons according to a recent survey. Tobacco smokers have chances of lung cancer and also suffer from diseases associated with the respiratory system. So, they also have higher chances to get affected by this.
Identification by the doctors
Like any other disease, there is a series of tests that doctors need to perform for walking pnuemonia. When the suffering person goes to the checkups, the first thing the doctor will do is a chest X-ray. A chest X-ray can detect whether a person has this disease or not. If you feel suspicious of your symptoms and go to the doctor. The doctor will first do a physical check-up and go through your medical history. After knowing about all the symptoms, then some tests will perform to detect the existence of the disease.
The most basic test regarding this matter is the mucus test, which brings up during the cough from the lung of the patient. It is called sputum and a sputum stain test is also performed once the patient is done with the mucus test. As throat is one of the places where the bacteria grow so a throat swab test is performed to detect the effectiveness of the bacteria. A complete blood count test happened during the diagnosis period of walking pneumonia, which is called a CBC test.
By doing this test, the actual blood cell numbers can be seen, and if there is any abnormality in the numbers of the blood cells, that also can b detected by this test. As it is known to all that antigen and antibodies are the main factors in the human body and play an important role during the suffering period from any diseases for any human out there. So, a test that is associated with antigen and antibody should be performed to detect this disease also.
Diagnosis
A blood culture is essential and advised by the doctors. It is to detect the existence of microplasma pneumonia which is the most common type of walking pneumonia. The test will help you to find if there is any kind of bacteria or microorganisms present in the blood. These microorganisms infect the blood and spread diseases in the human body. So, these are the mandatory tests that you need to go through if you find walking pneumonia symptoms. This will confirm the existence of the disease and what type of walking pneumonia this is.
So, this content precisely describes every aspect of pneumonia. It includes walking pneumonia symptoms, treatment, types of pneumonia and how it could be diagnosed. Also, what are the mandatory steps you need to do to avoid. Finally, the prevention of this disease and what are the necessary tests that need to be performed by the experts. Children must be carefully guided by their parents when they will return from school to prevent such a disease.