When Mollee Campbells 14-year-old son, William, returned home from school, she noticed something was amiss. William, usually healthy, appeared extremely pale, had difficulty breathing, and seemed on the verge of passing out. Upon reaching the emergency room, doctors informed his mother that William’s lungs were filled with fluid, and his oxygen levels were dangerously low.
After diagnosis, doctors identified William’s symptoms as mycoplasma pneumonia, also known as “white lung syndrome.” This bacterial infection damages the respiratory system’s lining, according to the CDC. The outbreak of mycoplasma pneumonia has been declared in Warren County Heath District in Ohio, where 145 pneumonia cases among individuals aged three to 14 have been reported since August. The surge in cases has raised concerns about the spread of this bacterial infection in the community.
Ms Campbell said that her local hospital was overwhelmed with cases of paediatric pneumonia and that paediatricians were struggling to treat the rising number of patients. When Mollee Campbells
“They said they were overloaded with it in the last two or three days that that was all they had been seeing and they were just trying to make sure they had all the medicine they needed for all the kids,” Ms Campbell told the Mail. “They did say almost the whole floor was nothing but children with pneumonia.”