Walking pneumonia

Walking pneumonia is an outdated term referring to pneumonia(infectionof the small air-filled sacs of the lung) which does not cause significant disability. People who are affected by walking pneumonia do not require hospitalizationand are often able to continue participating in school or work functions. Although these mild cases of pneumonia can be caused by any number of microorganisms, infection with viruses such as influenzaand respiratory syncytial virusor atypical bacteriasuch a Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, or Legionella pneumophila.

Treatment, when necessary, is typically with oral antibioticssuch as amoxicillin, a macrolide like azithromycinor clarithromycin, or a fluoroquinolone, e.g. levofloxacin.

Prognosis is excellent, with symptoms typically resolving after a week or less.

See also

• Pneumonia
• Atypical pneumonia
• Viral pneumonia

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking+pneumonia Wikipedia article Walking pneumonia.