Local health care providers are seeing a concerning increase in the number of patients with walking pneumonia—especially young children, who are not normally as affected as other cohorts.
“With walking pneumonia patients are not that sick, so they don’t need to be on bed rest— hence the term walking pneumonia,” explains Jasmeet Singh Bhogal, medical director for MedStar Health Urgent Care. He works primarily in the Ballston and Alexandria offices of the 33-location urgent care system.
This respiratory illness is a less severe form of pneumonia that has similar symptoms: cough, fever, sore throat, headache, chest pain and fatigue.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of walking pneumonia [cases] that are coming in right now,” Bhogal says. As of October, MedStar had seen a 358% increase in urgent care cases of the respiratory ailment compared to October of 2023. “That’s a pretty significant increase.”
This tracks with national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which indicates a nationwide uptick in diagnoses among all age groups, including children. Walking pneumonia cases among kids ages 2-4—an age group that historically has not been greatly affected—have risen from from 1% to 7%, while the rate among kids ages 5-17 increased from 3.6% to 7.4%. Though cases across the country peaked in August, they remain high, according to the CDC.
What’s driving the uptick is uncertain, but “some believe that we are coming back to the pre-Covid levels now with many of the respiratory illnesses,” Bhogal says. “That probably is what is driving these numbers higher.”
People contract walking pneumonia, caused by the spread of the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae, by inhaling respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
However, pinpointing its prevalence is tricky because walking pneumonia often presents as a chest cold. Many people treat the symptoms with over-the-counter medications and don’t go to the doctor, says Rabih Halabi, section chief of pulmonary medicine for Inova Health System and the medical director of Outpatient Respiratory Care Services at the Inova Fairfax Medical Campus.
When symptoms worsen or persist beyond a week, it’s time to seek medical attention, he says. Especially patients who develop shortness of breath or chest tightness.
Health care providers diagnose walking pneumonia through a clinical exam that includes listening to the lungs. “If we hear specific sounds [such as crackling or wheezing], more than likely we’ll be doing a chest X-ray,” Bhogal says.
Another commonly used diagnostic tool is a nasal swab that MedStar sends out for lab testing. “The utility of that is low, because…the test does take a few days to come back,” he adds.
Patients who visit Inova with respiratory illnesses undergo a pathogen panel that checks for common viral infections, including RSV, Covid and the flu, as well as walking pneumonia.
“Given the increased rise in cases, we’re checking more respiratory pathogen panels on most patients, be it adults or pediatrics,” Halabi says.
Once diagnosed, most patients don’t require prescription medication, he adds. “They treat their symptoms with over-the-counter medications such as decongestants or cough suppressants.”
Antibiotic such as azithromycin—often called a Z-Pak—may be prescribed for more persistent cases or for high-risk patients with complicating health problems, such as those who are elderly or immunocompromised, or have underlying heart or lung conditions.
In rare cases, walking pneumonia can cause serious pneumonia, encephalitis (swelling of the brain) or Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a skin reaction that occurs when the immune system overreacts to a trigger.
The best lines of defense are frequent and thorough hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes, Bhogal says.
And if you’re sick, try to avoid contact with other people for five to seven days, Halabi adds.