# What is walking pneumonia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609 "2007-01-03T23:17:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sonia\_Montdore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Sonia\_Montdore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonia_Montdore)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/1 "2007-01-03T23:17:46Z")
How is it different from non-walking pneumonia and bronchitis? I am not looking for medical advice - I’m feeling fine. The question was suggested by this news story: [The Providence Journal: Local News, Politics & Sports in Providence, RI](http://www.projo.com/news/content/warwickillness_12-31-06_NF3LN6B.2fbec88.html) ---
**Author:** ![JCorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JCorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCorre)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/2 "2007-01-03T23:24:53Z")
> **[Atypical pneumonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_pneumonia)** > > Atypical pneumonia, also known as walking pneumonia, is any type of pneumonia not caused by one of the pathogens most commonly associated with the disease. Its clinical presentation contrasts to that of "typical" pneumonia. A variety of microorganisms can cause it. When it develops independently from another disease, it is called primary atypical pneumonia (PAP). > The term was introduced in the 1930s and was contrasted with the bacterial pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, at that time ... Just a milder case. I’ve had it once when I was a child and 2 other times when I had to be hospitalized. All before the age of 10. Good times! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/3 "2007-01-03T23:27:33Z")
Walking pneumonia is real pneumonia but the person afflicted is just tolerating it well with few symptoms to suggest the underlying condition. I had it as a child and it was picked up during a doctor’s visit for something else. It is dangerous because it has the potential to become more overt pneumonia at any time and of course that can kill. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/4 "2007-01-03T23:29:06Z")
I’ve had it. Not fun. Basically, it is a pneumonia with symptoms that on the surface are not severe enough to keep you in bed or from going to work, and that cold medicines can keep resonably suppressed. Mine was an imbedded lung infection that just wouldn’t go away. I felt perfectly fine, except for a phlegmy cough, but no other symptoms. I had energy, no other complaints, and just went on with life waiting for it to get better. It basically lurked in my lungs, never being severe enough to go to the doctor (plus I was a college student with no health insurance at the time), but I was unknowingly losing a lot of weight as my body fruitlessly tried to fight the infection. Over the course of two months, I dropped from 160 lbs to 115 lbs (as a 5’10" male). I ended up passing out, rushed to emergency, and on heavy medication and house-bound for 3 months of recovery. I had to take a quarter off from college to recover. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/5 "2007-01-04T00:22:57Z")
I and my colleagues treat people with pneumonia every day. Yet, I don’t ever recall hearing the term used by a doc. Likewise, I’ve never seen an article in a medical textbook or a journal use the term. In fact, in the millions of articles listed on PubMed (an online resource that contains ALL of the medical literature), there are only two references to “walking pneumonia”, both of them written in German (with "walking pneumonia appearing in the translation of the abstract). I’m not saying that all this means there’s no such thing as “walking pneumonia”, just that it’s not really a medical term. That being said, I _think_ people who use the term are most commonly referring to the pneumonia caused by the germ [Mycoplasma pneumoniae](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoplasma_pneumoniae). [Here’s a previous thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=366905) on “walking pneumonia”. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/6 "2007-01-04T00:53:15Z")
It’s like the boogie woogie blues. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/7 "2007-01-04T01:05:41Z")
I’ve always mentally pictured the walking pneumonia as somewhere between the living dead and a [shambling mound](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambling_mound). Run! It’s the walking pneumonia! (At least it’s easy to outrun, since it’s only walking.) ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/8 "2007-01-04T01:10:21Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] It’s like the boogie woogie blues. [/QUOTE] That’s _rockin’_ pneumonia, not walking pneumonia. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/9 "2007-01-04T01:33:51Z")
I always thought the distinction was between bacterial and viral pneumonia. There was one year that my mother, my sister and I all had pneumonia, but were walking around well enough that we had Thanksgiving dinner together on the theory that everyone in the three families had already been exposed to the Mom of the house’s disease anyway. We had all seen different doctors and been given the identical medicines, which included an antibiotic, which leads me to the opinion that “walking pneumonia” is the bacterial kind. But perhaps a real doctor will come along and explain it. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/10 "2007-01-04T01:56:54Z")
[QUOTE=MLS] But perhaps a real doctor will come along and explain it. [/QUOTE] One already did. **KarlGauss** summarizes it nicely from the medical side of things. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/11 "2007-01-04T04:10:41Z")
no one responded about bronchitis so lemme throw in my couple of cents. Remember that the respiratory system is not just one thing, loosely you could think of the upper airway as the nose, tonsillar area and the top of the throat, the aveolar clusters are the grape looking things at the bottom where actual gas exchange happens with the blood, and the bronchiols as the tubing that connects the two. Each area has, big suprise, different issues, and the diseases associated with each tend to be from different pathogens. The common cold is pretty much by definition a viral infection of the upper airway, bronchitis is often more serious and pneumonia more serious still. If you consider that the point of gas exchange is so thin that you have blood on one side and air on the other and o2 and co2 exchange by passive difusion to areas of lower concentration you realize how much of an impact some swelling, pus, and fluid collection can have on your ability to breathe. I’ll have to second never having seen “walking pnemonia” as a diagnosis. Reminds me of a joke though, what’s the worst part about a lung transplant? You’ll be hawking up someone elses phlegm. thankyou thankyou, tip your waitresses, try the fish ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/12 "2007-01-04T04:19:24Z")
I had it when I was in the Marines, circa 1961, and hospitalized at Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital. Supposedly walking pneumonia is an infection of just one lung, not both of them. Nah, it didn’t sound right to me either back then, but I didn’t care enough to ask anyone in authority. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/13 "2007-01-04T04:46:15Z")
I heard it from a Dr’s mouth when my husband was diagnosed with it. Pretty much as described above. He was just too much of a man to let a little feeling poorly keep him from carrying on regardless. I had to force him to the Dr., she told him he was fortunate, people who ignore the nagging symptoms often end up not seeking treatment until they collapse. At that point it’s a much longer recovery which usually begins with hospitalization. She put him on a course of antibiotics. And, of course, told me to bring him back if it should return. But he was just fine. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/14 "2007-01-04T05:20:19Z")
[QUOTE=MLS] We had all seen different doctors and been given the identical medicines, which included an antibiotic, which leads me to the opinion that “walking pneumonia” is the bacterial kind. [/QUOTE] IANA Doctor, but from what I’ve been taught in clinical pathophysiology classes the opposite is true. The so-called “walking pneumonia” is the viral type, while an actual bacterial infection causing pneumonia more or less requires hospitalization. Very bad times. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/15 "2007-01-04T15:40:06Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] It’s like the boogie woogie blues. [/QUOTE] Would you rather have that or the heebie jeebies? ---
**Author:** ![Sonia\_Montdore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Sonia\_Montdore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonia_Montdore)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/16 "2007-01-04T19:42:14Z")
Thanks, everybody. I appreciate your taking the time to answer. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/17 "2007-01-04T21:17:00Z")
[QUOTE=Punoqllads] That’s _rockin’_ pneumonia, not walking pneumonia. [/QUOTE] And it’s [boogie woogie **FLU**](http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/mygirl2/rockinpneumoniaandtheboogiewoogieflu.htm). The symptoms being: > [@](#): > > I wanna jump but I’m afraid I’ll fall > I wanna holler but the joint’s too small > > Call some other’s baby that ain’t all > I wanna kiss her but she’s way too tall > > I wanna squeeze her but I’m way too low > I would be runnin’ but my feets too slow [QUOTE=Cervaise] Would you rather have that or the heebie jeebies? [/QUOTE] I once had the heebie jeebies, the willies, and the jim-jams all at once, due to a bad infection from the jittersbug. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/18 "2007-01-04T23:36:28Z")
[QUOTE=bigbabysweets2000] IANA Doctor, but from what I’ve been taught in clinical pathophysiology classes the opposite is true. The so-called “walking pneumonia” is the viral type, while an actual bacterial infection causing pneumonia more or less requires hospitalization. Very bad times. [/QUOTE] So were my mom and my sister and I just incredibly and coincidentally lucky that we had a bacterial pneumonia and yet were no where near requiring hospitalization? I’m confused. Obviously. ---
**Author:** ![badkittypriestess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8baadc/32.png) [@badkittypriestess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badkittypriestess)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/19 "2007-01-04T23:43:38Z")
[http://lungdiseases.about.com/od/pneumon2/a/walkingpneum.htm](http://lungdiseases.about.com/od/pneumon2/a/walkingpneum.htm) try here for info on it. I’ve had it before a few years ago but don’t remember a lot about it. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-walking-pneumonia/386609/20 "2007-01-05T03:00:29Z")
[QUOTE=MLS] So were my mom and my sister and I just incredibly and coincidentally lucky that we had a bacterial pneumonia and yet were no where near requiring hospitalization? I’m confused. Obviously. [/QUOTE] Did they collect cultures and confirm that they had a bacterial pneumonia, or did they just give them antibiotics? A lot of the times doctors will prescribe antibiotics to people with pneumonia no matter what the cause. Which isn’t neccesarily a bad thing, because people with viral pneumonia come to have a weakened immune systemsystem and have a more likely chance of having the viral type exacerbate into a more serious bacterial type. The antibiotics don’t help you overcome the viral pneumonia better, they are just used to make sure that things don’t progress worse. But please, in all honesty I am no doctor, just someone working in the medical profession. So I would really like someone other than me to input on this because I don’t want to be giving out bad advice.