“Walking pneumonia” may not be as severe as pneumonia, but it is an infection, it is contagious and it is something to treat with antibiotics.
“‘Walking pneumonia’ is the term used for pneumonia that does not cause someone to be severely ill, but it still causes many of the symptoms of pneumonia like coughing and fever,” says Joy L. LeDoux-Johnson, MD, internal medicine physician/pediatrician at Saint Francis Medical Center. “Patients may have a cough that’s very productive, with lots of green or brown mucus. Their fever might be very high. You shouldn’t ignore these types of symptoms because, if left untreated, it can progress to a more severe form of pneumonia.”
Protecting other people is another good reason to seek treatment. Like the common cold, walking pneumonia typically spreads through air droplets from coughing and sneezing.
For more information, visit
www.sfmc.net or call 573-331-3996.