Walking Pneumonia

Walking pneumonia may be used by a doctor to describe pneumonia that isn't severe enough to cause bed rest. There are more than 50 kinds of pneumonia. If your doctor told you that you have walking pneumonia, it may be due to an tiny organism called mycoplasma which often affects older children and young adults. Pneumonia often mimics a cold or the flu, so you may not realize you have a more serious condition.

Common symptoms of walking pneumonia may include:

• Chest wall pain that is often made worse by coughing or breathing in 
• Rapid heartbeat 
• Fatigue or vague feeling of weakness (malaise)
• Cough, often producing discolored mucus from the lungs. Sputum may be rusty or green or tinged with blood. 
• Fever, which may be less common in older adults 
• Rapid, often shallow, breathing and the feeling of being short of breath
• A single episode or many attacks, shaking, chills

Symptoms of pneumonia vary greatly, depending on any underlying conditions and the type of organism causing the infection:

Pneumocystis carinii  is the  most common opportunistic infection affecting Americans with AIDS. People whose immune systems are compromised by treatment with corticosteroids, organ transplants or cancer also are at risk. Symptoms  include a cough that doesn't go away, fever and trouble breathing.

Bacterial pneumonia can occur on its own, or you may develop it after you've had an upper respiratory infection such as a cold or the flu. Signs and symptoms, which are likely to come on suddenly, include shaking chills, a high fever, sweating, chest pain and a cough that produces thick, greenish or yellow phlegm. If you're an older adult or have a chronic illness, you may have fewer or milder symptoms.

A dozen different viruses, including the same viruses that cause influenza, are responsible for half of all cases of pneumonia. Viral pneumonia strikes primarily in the fall and winter months and tends to be more serious in people with cardiovascular or lung disease. Symptoms starts with a dry cough, headache, fever, muscle pain and fatigue. With progresses, you may become breathless and develop a cough that produces phlegm. 

Certain types of fungus also can cause pneumonia, especially Histoplasma capsulatum, which is common in the Ohio River valleys and Mississippi regions. Most people experience few if any symptoms after inhaling this fungus, but some develop symptoms of acute pneumonia, and still others may develop a chronic pneumonia lasting months.

Chlamydia a bacterium pneumonia causes symptoms similar to those of mycoplasma. Although everyone is at risk, chlamydia pneumonia is most common in school-age children.

 Walking Pneumonia Symptoms to P