An official of the Department of Internal Medicine of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) confirmed on Monday that there is no increase in the number of atypical pneumonia or “walking pneumonia” patients at SPMC.
Walking pneumonia is a lung infection caused by mycoplasma pneumonia.
“The mycoplasma pneumonia ginatawag na “walking pneumonia” kay you might be infected pero wala ka kabalo,” Dr. Hakan L. Oztemiz, Internal Medicine level II resident of SPMC, said during the yearend Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Davao on Monday.
Mycoplasma pneumonia is mild and the symptoms are less severe the reason patients can continue with their daily activities.
“Though mild ito may potential na mag severe especially sa mga patients na may comorbidities,” he said.
He said they have the same census at SPMC for the atypical pneumonia.
“We have low data (mycoplasma pneumonia) compared sa typical pneumonia na maka cause ng admission. Usually what we do we treat the patient, kung hindi need hospitalization, we discharged them, compare to the treatment ng pneumonia that would take two to three days kung mag improve sila continue treatment outside at kung hindi mag improve we will investigate further,” he said.
He said most of the time they do not see mycoplasma in their culture system.
“Sa SPMC we consider sila lahat (patients) na typical pneumonia pero walang surge or increase of pneumonia cases in SPMC. Expected namin na maraming pneumonia ngayon kasi maulan,” he said.
Mycoplasma pneumonia commonly affects children and elderly but can be caught by anyone of any age.
“It can infect everyone but it’s more common to the elderly aged 60 years old and above and 18 years old and below because their immune system is not that well developed because as we grow older our immune system weakens,” he said.
