1 00:00:01,933 --> 00:00:05,033 Just in time for the holidays. A rise in cases of a contagious lung infection 2 00:00:05,033 --> 00:00:09,833 across the country is causing alarm, especially for parents of young children. 3 00:00:09,833 --> 00:00:14,833 Ali Rogin talks with an infectious disease specialist about what's behind the spike. 4 00:00:17,333 --> 00:00:21,666 ALI ROGIN: The colder months usually mean more time indoors and higher rates of respiratory 5 00:00:21,666 --> 00:00:26,666 illnesses like the flu and COVID. But now the CDC is tracking an uptick in 6 00:00:28,533 --> 00:00:31,233 cases of so called walking pneumonia. The respiratory illness usually sickens 7 00:00:31,233 --> 00:00:36,166 school aged children and teens. But this year, toddlers are being hit the hardest. 8 00:00:36,166 --> 00:00:40,633 Dr. Donald Dumford is the infectious disease specialist at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Dumford, 9 00:00:40,633 --> 00:00:42,866 thank you so much for being here. What is walking 10 00:00:42,866 --> 00:00:46,066 pneumonia and how does it differ from other types of pneumonia? 11 00:00:46,066 --> 00:00:48,500 DR. DONALD DUMFORD, Infectious Disease Specialist, Cleveland Clinic: When we talk about walking 12 00:00:48,500 --> 00:00:52,200 pneumonia versus a more classic case of pneumonia, essentially it's typically causing a more mild 13 00:00:54,666 --> 00:00:59,033 course of illness. If you think about a typical case of pneumonia, you're going to see abrupt 14 00:00:59,033 --> 00:01:03,933 onset of symptoms. Whereas with walking pneumonia, which is typically caused by a bacteria called 15 00:01:03,933 --> 00:01:08,933 mycoplasma, you're going to see kind of a gradual onset over a few days leading to the illness. 16 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,100 So it's going to be a few days where you start to feel poorly, you start to get a cough, 17 00:01:16,166 --> 00:01:18,866 you start to get a fever, and really over about three to five days, you get a fever, 18 00:01:18,866 --> 00:01:22,800 headache, muscle aches and then start to get a pretty bad cough with it. 19 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:25,400 ALI ROGIN: What do we know at this point about why toddlers and other 20 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:30,400 young children are being affected so much this year as compared to previous years? 21 00:01:32,100 --> 00:01:34,233 DONALD DUMFORD: When you think about mycoplasma, typically we see that 22 00:01:34,233 --> 00:01:39,233 about every three to five years there's a cyclical increase in cases. So normally, 23 00:01:40,933 --> 00:01:44,133 no matter what happens, every three to five years you see a rise. We 24 00:01:44,133 --> 00:01:48,133 really didn't see that rise that we expected during the COVID pandemic. 25 00:01:48,133 --> 00:01:53,100 So I think right now, because we have probably a higher number of susceptible people, 26 00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:58,233 you tend to that there is a lot of higher cases of severe illness, 27 00:01:58,233 --> 00:02:02,466 which is why we're seeing it a lot in the toddler population, along with the classical 28 00:02:02,466 --> 00:02:07,466 school age population, which is usually the population is most severely affected. 29 00:02:08,566 --> 00:02:10,733 ALI ROGIN: How contagious is this? 30 00:02:10,733 --> 00:02:13,600 DONALD DUMFORD: It is pretty contagious. So, you know, the best way we look at this as far 31 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:18,600 as the contagiousness is when you look at how it affects families and if it enters a family, 32 00:02:20,566 --> 00:02:24,333 you actually expect that about 80 percent of the other kids in the family are going 33 00:02:24,333 --> 00:02:28,200 to get sick, about 40 percent of the adults are going to get sick. 34 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:33,200 And probably, you know, all of us classically will get this probably 35 00:02:35,300 --> 00:02:38,266 three times in our lifetime. One time during our childhood, one time when we're adults, 36 00:02:40,066 --> 00:02:43,266 whether our 20s, 30s, 40s, and then probably one time when we're elderly. 37 00:02:43,266 --> 00:02:48,266 ALI ROGIN: Given that we're talking about a post-COVID spike here, are we seeing similar 38 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:53,166 increases in other respiratory illnesses as well, or is it mainly confined to this one? 39 00:02:53,166 --> 00:02:55,900 DONALD DUMFORD: Yes, definitely. The other thing we've seen this year that 40 00:02:55,900 --> 00:03:00,866 has had a rather high spike in cases has been whooping cough, 41 00:03:02,966 --> 00:03:06,800 which is caused by a bacteria called Bordetella pertussis. And it's actually something we, 42 00:03:08,966 --> 00:03:12,066 most of us or all of us get vaccinated for when we get vaccinated for tetanus and diphtheria. 43 00:03:13,833 --> 00:03:16,000 Typically that similarly will have an increase in the number of cases about 44 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:21,000 every four to five years. But we've really seen a really high increase in the number of cases, 45 00:03:22,700 --> 00:03:26,600 probably about three or four times what we would otherwise expect, 46 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:30,533 probably because of that having the lack of that increase in the number 47 00:03:30,533 --> 00:03:35,533 of cases. And I guess the challenge to the population during the COVID years. 48 00:03:37,333 --> 00:03:39,100 ALI ROGIN: And what should parents be looking for to spot whether this 49 00:03:39,100 --> 00:03:42,800 is walking pneumonia or something more similar to the common cold? 50 00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:47,033 DONALD DUMFORD: Well, I think what you're going to see in your kids typically the common cold, 51 00:03:47,033 --> 00:03:50,400 you're really not going to have a fever with it. A kid's going to have a runny nose, they're 52 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:55,400 going to have a cough, but they're going to seem otherwise. Well, your kid with mycoplasma, they're 53 00:03:57,533 --> 00:04:00,866 more likely to be complaining of feeling achy and they're going to seem a little more run down. 54 00:04:00,866 --> 00:04:05,866 And typically it's going to be associated with a fever. And when that fever sort of persists a 55 00:04:08,233 --> 00:04:10,533 little bit longer than you would otherwise expect with a virus, that's when you might start to worry 56 00:04:10,533 --> 00:04:14,800 about mycoplasma. I think, really, whenever you see a child that's starting to act a little bit 57 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:19,033 punky, starting to act a little bit run down, has a fever, it's time to call your pediatrician 58 00:04:19,033 --> 00:04:23,600 to check and see if they should get tested and if they would need antibiotics at that point. 59 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:27,733 We know that some of the measures applied during the height of COVID can help reduce illness, 60 00:04:27,733 --> 00:04:32,200 like washing your hands. But do those measures still apply for other respiratory. Respiratory 61 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:37,100 illnesses, and are they things that people can employ to help mitigate these cases? 62 00:04:37,100 --> 00:04:41,433 DONALD DUMFORD: Yes, definitely. You know, really, as we enter respiratory season, 63 00:04:41,433 --> 00:04:45,200 you know, whether you're talking about COVID you're talking the flu, you're talking about this 64 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:50,200 ongoing mycoplasma outbreak, you're talking about the other viruses that we tend to get. You know, 65 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:54,233 really all of those common sense measures are things that you should be employing. Washing your 66 00:04:54,233 --> 00:04:59,233 hands is going to be imperative. So you're not taking, you know, a virus you pick up on a table 67 00:05:01,133 --> 00:05:03,300 and take it up to your face, which is how you might get it off of a surface. 68 00:05:03,300 --> 00:05:05,500 Making sure that you're covering your cough if 69 00:05:05,500 --> 00:05:09,300 you're sick is definitely a big thing. It's really those common sense measures, 70 00:05:09,300 --> 00:05:14,300 they're going to protect your viewers from really all of these illnesses, whether it's mycoplasma 71 00:05:16,300 --> 00:05:18,933 or Covid or the flu or the other viruses we tend to see around this time of year. 72 00:05:18,933 --> 00:05:22,866 ALI ROGIN: Dr. Donald Dumford, medical director for infection prevention at Cleveland Clinic, 73 00:05:22,866 --> 00:05:25,533 Akron, thank you so much for explaining all this to us. 74 00:05:25,533 --> 00:05:26,933 DONALD DUMFORD: Thanks for having me, Ali.