Doctors and parents are warning of a frightening ‘white pneumonia’ that is once again emerging among schoolchildren in the US

Doctors and parents are warning of a rise in ‘white pneumonia’ among American children – a year after a terrifying outbreak abroad.

The infection – caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumonia – mainly affects young people aged two to four who were born during the Covid pandemic.

More than 10 percent of emergency room visits with pneumonia in this age group were diagnosed with the bacteria at its peak in August.

The CDC said this was unusual “because M. pneumoniae has not historically been recognized as a major cause of pneumonia in this age group.”

In Baltimore, Alexis Geddes sat by her three-year-old daughter Alma’s hospital bed for four nights as Alma, three, struggled to breathe.

Mrs Geddes told the Baltimore banner: ‘It is very scary when your child cannot breathe. And the whole room was full of kids just trying to breathe.”

The infection is nicknamed “white lung” because of the characteristic white spots it leaves on X-rays of patients’ lungs.

Alma, already small, lost weight on a diet of bacon and strawberries, the only food she could tolerate.

Her big blue eyes looked even rounder against her thin cheeks.

Alma was given azithromycin at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, the standard treatment for mycoplasma pneumonia.

Finally, Alma’s lungs began to recover. GBMC staff gradually took her off oxygen and she was discharged, eager to reunite with her brothers and her beloved dog, Cybele.

But Alma, who has to wake up every four hours for nebulizer treatments, remains very tired. Her mother is also exhausted.

Mrs Geddes said: ‘I think we both still feel like we’ve been hit by a bus.’

The data on discharge diagnoses of M. pneumoniae from March 31 to October 5, 2024 show an increase in cases across all ages, peaking in August and remaining high.

Among children aged two to four years old, the percentage of cases rose from one percent to more than seven percent, and among children aged five to seventeen it grew. from 3.6 percent to 7.4 percent.

However, the actual number of children and adults with mycoplasma pneumonia is unknown because there is no national surveillance system to detect these infections.

Alma, three, was one of several children doctors at Greater Baltimore Medical Center have seen with pneumonia so far this year

Alma Geddes remained in the hospital for three nights and four days until doctors were able to reduce the oxygen and antibiotics

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, defined what parents call “white lung pneumonia” as a term to describe one of the telltale signs of mycoplasma pneumonia.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘There happens to be a certain type of bacteria (M. pneumoniae) that isn’t very well studied, but it does occur at (irregular) periods for reasons we don’t really understand. And it causes this pneumonia, which fortunately is treatable.’

Unlike viruses such as influenza and RSV that tend to strike in the colder months, outbreaks of mycoplasma infections can also occur at any time of the year in seemingly random clusters at schools and military bases.

The most prominent symptom is frequent coughing, but others include fever that fluctuates, along with lethargy and fatigue.

Although most patients have pulmonary congestion that can be detected with a stethoscope, not all of them do. Additional symptoms may include headache, sore throat and, less commonly, a rash.

Dr. Schaffner added, “Last year and this year we could call it kind of a big wave of mycoplasma infections, so the white lung concept or syndrome is being talked about a lot more than in many other years.”

The white masses in the lungs represent fluid-filled air sacs that infectious disease experts say indicate mycoplasma pneumonia

Hospitals in Fort Worth, Texas have recorded an increase in the number of children entering the emergency department and being diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia.

Cook Children’s Medical Center reported this in July 80 out of 398 patients tested were positive, resulting in a 20 percent positivity rate across the health care system, compared to zero percent last summer.

And in Washington, DC, doctors from Children’s National Hospital said: ‘We have seen an increase in detection in recent weeks.’

In Texas, Stephanie Parks watched her youngest son Caleb struggle to breathe in an ambulance en route to Cook’s Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, where he was tested and diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia.

Caleb diagnosed it as strep throat on Oct. 10, and when doctors checked his lungs, she said, they sounded “crystal clear” and assumed his labored breathing was related to allergies.

“We were in the emergency room within two days,” she says saidand adds, ‘If your child is coughing and having trouble breathing, make sure he gets a chest x-ray and is tested for mycoplasma pneumonia. It’s a throat swab. Demand it.”

Stephanie Parks, left, is pictured with her family. Her son Caleb, second from left, was in the hospital for almost a week with mycoplasma pneumonia

A bacterial infection develops into pneumonia when it moves from the upper respiratory tract (the nose, throat, and upper bronchi) to the lower respiratory tract and infiltrates lung tissue.

To test for mycoplasma pneumonia, nurses take a swab from the nose and throat and send the sample to a laboratory to test for the presence of the bacteria’s DNA.

Doctors usually perform X-rays to examine the lungs. Although the X-ray itself cannot diagnose mycoplasma pneumonia, it can help doctors detect inflammation and fluid buildup, which appear as white masses.

Last year, mycoplasma outbreaks were recorded in several states, including Massachusetts and Ohio, as well as in Europe and China.

The world saw a low incidence of this bacterial infection during the Covid pandemic, when millions of people were isolated from other germs.

Dr. Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist in Seattle, said the renewed surge this summer is unexpected: “If you look back over the past 30 years, you see spikes in transmission every about three to four years.

“So what we saw in 2023, we may see something similar in 2027. But at this point, it’s anyone’s best guess as to whether that will actually be the case, because COVID has in some ways so disrupted the way we understand these diseases.”