Americans in Ohio are facing an alarming pneumonia outbreak. On Thursday, Nov. 30, the Warren County Health District announced that pediatric pneumonia cases are drastically increasing.
Ohio's health officials said that since August, the respiratory infections among children reached over 140 cases. They added that most of the symptoms infected kids develop are cough, fatigue, and fever.
Luckily, no deaths were recorded as of writing. The Ohio district also clarified that the pneumonia infection cases are no more severe than those in 2022.
Ohio's Pneumonia Outbreak: Is China's Mysterious Illness To Blame?
According to NBC News' latest report, Ohio children are getting infected by mycoplasma pneumonia, which is the same respiratory illness spreading across China.
Recently, the World Health Organization said that China is seeing an increase in hospitalization among children infected with mycoplasma pneumonia. WHO officials said that the rise in hospitalizations they are seeing started in May.
Although this is the case, it is still too early to conclude that the infections in Ohio are caused by China, especially since this respiratory illness is very common.
For those who are not familiar with this infection, mycoplasma pneumonia is caused by a bacterium called "mycoplasma pneumoniae," which can spread through droplets when infected people cough or sneeze.
Health experts also said that this tiny bacterium can linger in the nose or throat without infecting the individual; they will only get infected with pneumonia if the bacteria spread to the lungs.
"It's sometimes referred to as 'walking pneumonia,' which means you have pneumonia but you're not sick enough to be in the hospital," explained Dr. James Cutrell of the UT Southern Medical Center in Dallas.
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Other US States With Pneumonia Outbreak
Aside from Ohio, other U.S. states are also experiencing serious pneumonia outbreaks. One of these is Denmark, which already has an epidemic-level mycoplasma pneumonia outbreak.
Massachusetts has also seen increases in pneumonia infections among children ever since WHO announced China's alarming respiratory outbreak.
Although this is the case, World Health Organization officials are not worried. This is because they don't see any sign that the pneumonia infections in China and some U.S. states are caused by a new novel disease.
"We do not think this is a novel/new respiratory disease but rather a large uptick in the number of pneumonia cases normally seen at one time," said the Warren County Health District via Metro UK.
