# What is walking pnemonia?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pnemonia/216754>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 3, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pnemonia/216754 "2003-12-03T18:52:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pnemonia/216754/1 "2003-12-03T18:52:57Z")

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There are two people at work today who say they have “walking pnemonia”. I remember about seven years ago when I had plain old regular pnemonia-- walking was downright impossible. In fact, I thought the act of breathing was almost beyond my capabilities. I was hospitalized for over a week and bedridden for close to a month. I really, really thought that I was going to die.

Now these two people at work are, well, at work. No rales, no muscle weakness, no spitting up gallons of gunk, no fever. What exactly is walking pnemonia?

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**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pnemonia/216754/2 "2003-12-03T18:59:30Z")

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See [Walking Pneumonia](http://www.drgreene.com/21_206.html); it’s a low-grade lung infection, a.k.a. “mycoplasma pneumonia”.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pnemonia/216754/3 "2003-12-03T19:50:24Z")

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_Walking pneumonia  
Walking pneumonia  
You’ll go a-walking, pneumonia, with me…_

(I really, really couldn’t resist. 😃 )

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**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pnemonia/216754/4 "2003-12-03T21:19:44Z")

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Not to be confused with the **rocking** pneumonia (and the boogie-woogie flu…) 🙂

Seriously though, I think the basic idea is that it is like pneumonia but you’re not so messed up that you can’t get up and walk around (or go to work).