What is mycoplasma pneumonia? Symptoms of mycoplasma pneumonia

What is mycoplasma pneumonia? Symptoms of mycoplasma pneumonia

Mycoplasma pneumonia is an acute pulmonary infection caused by mycoplasma pneumoniae, often associated with pharyngitis and bronchitis. Mycoplasma is an organism that falls somewhere between bacteria and viruses, and is the smallest microbe that can survive independently in nature. It is also a kind of bacteria in a broad sense.)

The disease tends to occur in people aged 5 to 20.

The main symptoms are cough, fever, may be accompanied by fatigue, shortness of breath, dyspnea, etc.

Underlying cause

The disease is caused by mycoplasma pneumoniae infection.

Source of infection: Patients with mycoplasma pneumonia and pathogen carriers are important sources of infection of the disease, and they are infectious during the incubation period (that is, 1-3 weeks after infection) until symptoms are relieved for several weeks.
Route of transmission: mainly respiratory transmission, healthy people through the inhalation of patients or carriers coughing, sneezing spray and infection.
High risk group
Children older than 5 years: Infants and young children rarely develop pneumonia, even if there is evidence of infection, due to immature immune mechanisms.
Teenagers: The school is crowded and susceptible to infection.
People who smoke and drink alcohol for a long time: because of tobacco and alcohol damage the ability of the lungs to resist infection, while causing a decline in immunity, more susceptible to disease.

Symptom presentation
Mycoplasma pneumonia has an incubation period of 1 to 3 weeks. There are various forms of the disease, most of which are mainly low fever and fatigue, some of which may appear sudden high fever accompanied by obvious headache, myalgia and nausea and other systemic poisoning symptoms.

Typical symptom
Fever: Body temperature over 37.5 degrees Celsius. During the rise of body temperature, there are cold fear, pale lips, shivering and other manifestations.
General fatigue and weakness: often manifested as the whole body has no strength, the mental state is relatively poor, and still does not improve after rest.
Cough: paroxysmal, irritating dry cough is more common, individual children can appear severe cough, generally lasting more than 4 weeks.
Headache: Swelling or dull pain in the head may occur.
Sore throat: Due to cough and other reasons, causing a sore throat, often relieved by swallowing.
Muscle soreness: The appearance of muscle pain, such as pain in the calf muscles.
Expectoration: Generally no sputum or only cough up a small amount of sticky sputum, occasionally with bloodshot sputum; Yellow sputum may also be seen, suggesting infection with other bacteria.
Other symptoms
In addition to the above symptoms, the following symptoms may occur:

Wheezing or difficulty breathing: feeling short of air, struggling to breathe, needing to breathe hard. You may need to open your mouth and lift your shoulders while breathing, or it may feel slightly more comfortable to sit and breathe.
Loss of appetite: Often do not want to eat, usually have no appetite for favorite foods.
Diarrhea: Excretion more than 3 times a day, and watery stool.
Swollen lymph nodes: Swollen lymph nodes in the neck and behind the ears, which can be easily felt by hand.
complication
Common complications of this disease are:

Nervous system: aseptic meningitis, meningoencephalitis, polyneuritis, transverse myelitis, seizures, etc.
Blood system: autoimmune hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenic purpura, diffuse intravascular coagulation, etc.
Cardiovascular system: pericardial effusion, cardiac insufficiency and arrhythmia.
Motor system: specific myalgia and arthralgia, mainly large and medium joints, with multiple joints, migration, slow relief characteristics, visible erythema multiforme.
Digestive system: gastroenteritis, hepatitis and abnormal liver function.
Urinary system: glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome.