RSCM Specialist Doctor: Mycroplasma Pneumonia Not As Bad As COVID-19

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Pediatrician at the Central General Hospital Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo (RSCM) Jakarta Nastiti Kaswandani said the severity of mycroplasma pneumonia was not as severe as SARS-CoV-2 which caused COVID-19.

"Compared to COVID-19, influenza, or other pneumonia causes such as pneumokokus, which we just adopted yesterday in the national program, the severity of myycroplasma pneumonia is much lower," he said in a virtual press conference related to myycroplasma pneumonia reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, December 6.

He said mycoplasma pneumonia is not a new bacteria in the world, unlike COVID-19, which since 2019 has been known as a new virus.

Nasati said mycoplasma pneumonia has long been mentioned in various literations about pneumonia as a bacteria that causes pneumonia in children.

Prior to the pandemic, he said, research emerged in China which stated that the highest proportion of mycroplasma pneumonia occurred in preschoolers and schoolchildren by 30 percent, while in infants it reached five percent.

He said the symptoms caused were almost similar to symptoms of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI), starting with fever and then coughing.

"This story is annoying, it can take up to two to three weeks to stay, it takes a long time," said Nastiti.

Other symptoms that also accompany mycroplasma pneumonia patients, he continued, are throat pain. In adults, sometimes chest pain to weakness.

Nastiti said the mortality rate or risk of death from the disease was relatively low, only 0.5 to 2 percent.

"That happens only to them with comorbidities," he said.

Nastiti appealed to the public not to worry too much about mycroplasma pneumonia, which is now detected in Jakarta, reaching six cases as of November 2023.

The reason, he said, is that mild symptoms that commonly occur in mycroplasma pneumonia patients can recover by themselves.

"That's why if in literature abroad they mention other names for travelingpneumonia, because of this the child can still walk around, do ordinary activities, unlike the typical pneumonia picture whose child must be injected with oxygen, hospitalized," he said.

Nastiti explained that the term travelingpneumonia shows patients in patient clinical condition are quite good, so they can still carry out their activities.

"So that most of the cases can be treated for roads and given drugs by drinking and the child can recover himself," said Nastiti.