Adrian Hugo Aginagalde
Spokesperson of the Spanish Society of Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Health Management (SEMPSPGS), Head of Service of the Epidemiological Surveillance and Health Information Unit of Gipuzkoa and, previously, Head of Service of the Population Screening Programmes Unit at the Ministry of Health
Outbreaks of atypical pneumonia in children are not uncommon in our setting. And in a context of increasing cases of RSV [respiratory syncytial virus], the situation described seems to respond to previously observed patterns. Moreover, improved syndromic surveillance (monitoring of pneumonia cases) allows early detection of these increases in cases.
Unlike viral respiratory infections, mycoplasma [bacteria that cause respiratory infections] cases are more difficult to confirm. They are milder, but empirical antibiotic treatment (without microbiological confirmation) makes it difficult to find out the pathogen, as its growth in sputum samples is inhibited by their action.
As these are mild pneumonias that do not require hospitalisation, they are treated as community-acquired pneumonias whose diagnosis is clinical and supported by radiography, without requiring microbiological confirmation.
In summary, this is a plausible hypothesis, the confirmation of which has some difficulties. Similar circumstances have been seen in our environment and have had no impact on health care. Nevertheless, until confirmation by other means (such as serology), it is too early to make a definitive assessment of the risk involved.