What is it about ?
Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a bacteria that often causes pneumonia in children and young adults. Contamination occurs through direct contact with other infected people. Bacteria are spread through coughs, mucus and phlegm.
What is their frequency?
Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections appear every year. Every 3 to 5 years we also observe them in the form of epidemics. This infection mainly affects children from 4 to 10 years old and young adults.
How to recognize them?
You don’t get sick immediately after being infected. The interval between contact with the pathogen and the onset of symptoms (the incubation period) is 1 to 4 weeks.
The disease often begins with a common cold with a runny nose, cough, sore throat and headache, and sometimes fever and muscle pain. Usually these symptoms go away on their own after 2 to 3 weeks. In about 10% of patients, symptoms are present for more than a month.
Sometimes the infection progresses and allows pneumonia with a long-lasting cough to develop, called atypical pneumonia. It can persist for more than 3 weeks in children and more than 4 to 8 weeks in adults.
Other possible symptoms are: skin rash, inflammation of the nervous system (meningitis, encephalitis, myelitis, polyradiculitis) with convulsions and altered consciousness, visual disturbances, vomiting and diarrhea, inflammation of the liver, muscle and joint pain, inflammation of heart muscle (myocardium) with chest pain and occasionally arrhythmias and blood disorders.
You can be infected with Mycoplasma pneumoniae more than once.
How can the doctor recognize them?
Your doctor will consider mycoplasma contamination in the event of prolonged upper respiratory infection in a large group of children or young adults. He will determine the antibodies directed against the bacteria in the blood. It is best to make this determination after just one week.
If pneumonia is suspected, an x-ray of the lungs may be done. If in doubt, coughed up mucus (sputum) can be sent to the lab for culture.
DNA testing can also be done on phlegm, cerebrospinal fluid (fluid in the brain and spinal cord), and synovial fluid (fluid that lubricates the joints). This exam is expensive and tedious. It is therefore reserved for serious cases of external contamination of the lungs.
What can you do ?
Mycoplasma pneumoniae is contagious. It is therefore important to prevent transmission to other people. Thus, it is best to cough with a tissue placed in front of the mouth to avoid airborne contamination. Preferably use disposable tissues. Wash your hands regularly. Make sure that the rooms are well ventilated. If it is a child under the age of one or a person over the age of 75, consult a doctor.
What can your doctor do?
Additional analyzes are recommended in the following cases:
- severe complaints,
- children under one year old or people over 75 years old,
- in women, advanced pregnancy (over 34 weeks).
Common respiratory tract infections with Mycoplasma pneumoniae usually resolve on their own. For severe symptoms such as severe cough or shortness of breath, the doctor may prescribe antibiotics such as azithromycin. To relieve shortness of breath, it may be necessary to temporarily use aerosols (especially in children) or inhalers.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections elsewhere in the body are treated in the hospital. The duration of treatment is more than 14 days.
In general, people recover quite well from a mycoplasma infection. Most of these infections even go unnoticed. However, you may still feel quite weak for a while after this type of infection. The cough can also persist for several weeks or even months. High performance athletes are more susceptible to recurrent respiratory tract infections, and therefore probably to mycoplasma infections as well. In the event of fever and fatigue, they should rest and resume training with caution.
Want to know more?
- What is an antibiotic – BAPCOC – Belgian Commission for the coordination of antibiotic policy
- Macrolides – CBIP – Belgian Center for Pharmacotherapeutic Information