Like China, European countries are seeing increasing cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes “walking pneumonia,” Euronews reports.
How serious is it?
Several European countries have seen an increase in pneumonia cases in children this year, similar to the rise in infections in China.
The infections are caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is a bacteria that can cause mild respiratory infections to severe pneumonia.
It is a common cause of pneumonia in school-aged children and, according to Public Health France, may account for 30 to 50 percent of community-acquired pneumonia infections in children.
Pneumonia causes inflammation of the air sacs of the lungs. They can fill with fluid or pus, causing symptoms such as coughing or difficulty breathing.
Six countries in the European Union or European Economic Area have so far reported increases in Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections.
It is also possible that the situation has worsened now because of the measures and limited transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic, EU health officials said.
What are the symptoms?
Some countries, including Denmark and France, have classified the rise in cases as an epidemic.
Hanne-Dorte Emborg, a senior researcher at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institute, told Euronews Next that when more than 10 percent of tests performed by doctors are positive for mycoplasma, it is considered an epidemic.
“It will be like flu-like symptoms, but you usually have a lot of coughing,” Emborg said.
“It’s not a very fast-growing disease. It’s usually slower and you might have a cough, you might be tired and you might have a headache, and if it goes on for quite a long time then it might be mycoplasma pneumonia,” she added.
This is one of the main causes of “walking pneumonia”, which is a mild form of infection where a person can continue their normal activities.
Researchers Mike Beeton and Patrick Meyer Sauteur began investigating surveillance of the bacterium mycoplasma pneumoniae back in 2020, finding that, like other respiratory infections, cases began to disappear due to the restrictions against COVID-19.
“It’s not surprising that we’ve seen detections of mycoplasma pneumoniae in many different countries around the world drop very sharply,” Beaton, a lecturer in medical microbiology at Cardiff Metropolitan University in the UK, told Euronews Next.
But as other common infections such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) reemerged, mycoplasma was absent.
“We knew at some point it was going to come back because there were still these random discoveries here and there in different different countries,” he said.
Where is it distributed?
Coordinating international surveillance of the infection, they have found that over the past six months they have started to see the number of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections increase.
Analyzing surveillance data from 24 countries between April and September 2023, they found that cases were higher in Europe and Asia. The “most common detections” in Europe were in Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales, they added in a paper published in the Lancet.
Several European countries have recently reported an increase in cases.
Danish health authorities said there had been an increase in Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections since the summer, with “significantly more cases than usual”.
France has reported “abnormal increases” in respiratory infections with Mycoplasma pneumoniae with increased circulation since the beginning of autumn and a higher number of cases compared to 2019 and 2022, “reflecting an epidemic situation”.
The Netherlands has also reported an increase in pneumonia cases, with public health institute RIVM telling Euronews Next there has been a particular increase in pneumonia infections among children aged five to 14.
The institute has asked GPs to take additional throat and nose samples for testing.
Why are cases of “walking pneumonia” increasing now?
It’s not known why these cases are increasing right now, but some health officials say it could be due to a delay after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.
Beaton says there are several theories as to why it took so long for this bacterium to reappear after the pandemic, including that it has a longer incubation period and that it is “slow growing.”
While the scale of cases the countries are seeing is concerning, he added, it is not surprising.
Danish health officials say outbreaks of Mycoplasma pneumoniae have historically occurred about every four years, with the most recent outbreak being from 2015-2018.
There were high numbers of cases just before the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have fallen to an “abnormally low level” amid the restrictions.
“There was almost nothing to circulate (during the pandemic) and then when we started to reopen (in Denmark) at different levels, different viruses started to circulate again,” Emborg said.
“But mycoplasma didn’t show up until now, so it’s been three and a half years since we’ve had real circulation of the bacteria.”
“There’s a little bit more than we’re used to, but we don’t see it as a problem at the moment because mycoplasma is usually a disease that affects children or schoolchildren. But they’re not usually admitted to hospital.”
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