2024-09-25 10:12:09
A pathogen that causes a serious respiratory disease is spreading. It triggers a so-called atypical pneumonia. What is behind it?
A serious lung disease has been diagnosed unusually often recently – especially in children and young people. The pneumonia is caused by mycoplasma. What does that mean?
These are very small bacteria that cause respiratory and urinary tract infections as well as genital tract infections. What is special and fatal about them is that they do not have a cell wall.
So-called broad-spectrum antibiotics are routinely prescribed to treat this type of bacterial infection.
The bacteria now attack the lung cells. There they multiply slowly, not quickly. Symptoms therefore only appear – if at all – one to three weeks after the infection.
Currently, pneumonia occurs primarily in children and adolescents. It is not possible to determine how common the disease actually is, as it is not currently a notifiable disease.
What is known is that the infection is usually milder than with typical pathogens such as pneumococci and can also remain asymptomatic. Pneumococci are considered the most common pathogens for pneumonia.
In the “Apotheken Umschau” Dr. Nicole Töpfner from the pediatric infectious disease department in Dresden gives the all-clear: “It is rather rare that a child has to be admitted to hospital for this reason.”
One thing is clear: the anti-coronavirus measures during the pandemic have also prevented many other respiratory infections. Therefore, there is a catch-up effect. This means that what was prevented by masks and other measures may now come in a concentrated form, especially in children who still need to train their immune systems.
In addition, mycoplasma pneumonia occurs in cycles: According to biologist Roger Dumke from the Robert Koch Institute, it returns approximately every three to seven years. “It is suspected that this rhythm has something to do with the subtypes: When a different subtype develops, the human immune system must first get used to it – accordingly, these pneumonias occur more frequently for a certain period of time,” says Dumke in the “Apotheken Umschau”.
As is often the case with respiratory diseases, mycoplasmas can be very dangerous, especially for older people and/or those with weakened immune systems. So far, however, the current wave has mainly affected children.