Minnesota not immune to increase in walking pneumonia cases in kids

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — Federal and state health officials tell CBS News they are tracking an increase of infections with the illness known as “walking pneumonia” or “white lung pneumonia”  among young kids.
The worst rates of the illness, caused by the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae, are in young children ages 2 to 4 years old, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures shared with CBS News. 
“Most of the time children are coming in with this persistent cough, associated sometimes with fevers,” pediatrician Dr. Melanie Lind-Ayres explained to WCCO news. “And they just cannot shake this cough.”
The CDC posted an alert about walking pneumonia on Oct. 18, and that concern was echoed by a similar bulletin from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
“Most children overall have mild symptoms that don’t get into problems with breathing or oxygen needs,” Lind-Ayres added. “They’re up at night coughing, they’re not sleeping well. They’re maybe having fevers and can’t go to school. Overall quality of life is certainly affected. It’s not necessarily leading into increased hospitalizations.”
Still, the doctor warns, having an overtired kid isn’t nothing.
“I can talk all day about the importance of sleep on the brain functioning, moods, illness prevention, healthy bodies, blood pressure,” Lind-Ayres said. “So much goes back to how well children are sleeping.”
The figures come from the CDC’s National Syndromic Surveillance Program, which crunches numbers from emergency rooms. It echoes an increase reported by testing company BioFire Diagnostics, tallying trends that are now more than 14 times higher than this time last year.
A CDC spokesperson said that levels are the worst right now across two regions in the middle of the country, from Texas through Iowa.