A special wave of pneumonia caused by mycoplasma bacteria is currently raging in Latvia, as reported by LTV programme Panorāma.
As reported by LTV, with this pneumonia, which used to be characteristic of children and young people, people of all ages are hospitalised this season – many need oxygen supply, and everyone needs specific antibiotics.
Lung doctors warn that in case of pneumonia caused by mycoplasma, the usual antibiotics of the penicillin group do not work, but other drugs.
“It is a small, atypical microorganism and unique in that the treatment is different than that of an adult patient to treat community-acquired pneumonia at home, for example, amoxicillin does not work! And the patient continues to get sick and ends up in the hospital,” explains acting head of the PSKUS Lung Disease Centre Zaiga Kravale.
As the incidence of mycoplasma-induced pneumonia increases, so does the number of patients who need to be taken to hospital.
At the Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Centre, one mycoplasma pneumonia patient is also being treated in the Intensive Care Unit. As the chief pneumonologist of the hospital explains, after the Covid-19 time restrictions, many diseases caused by viruses and bacteria return with double force, and this is the case not only in Latvia, but also in other parts of the world.
The presence of the bacteria can be detected by a hospital within a few hours by a polymerase chain reaction. Outpatient test results are not available quickly, and the health will not recover quickly on its own – patients regain their strength slowly, doctors explains.