What is this Mycoplasma thing?

Mycoplasma pneumonia is the most commom cause of walking pneumonia, a very common form of pneumonia for school aged children. Normally this does not make you too sick but rarely can really nock a kid for a loop. It tends to be responsive to erythromycin, azithromycin (zithromax) and clarithromycin (biaxin) and for older kids to doxycycline. Usually 5 days of zithromax or 14 days of biaxin or doxy is all you need. Rarely the kids don't respond well and will need 1-3 months of medication (I get about 1 of these nonresponsive cases each year). Close followup is always important but these kids usually do very well and have complete resolution after a time.


Mycoplasma many times will mimic asthma.  This can delay diagnosis for quite a while, unfortunately.  Mycoplasma may or may not be associated with a fever and occasionally results in a rash.  We are seeing several cases per day of this bug right now.  Call us if you are concerned.