Pneumonia
Explore This Topic

Walking Pneumonia

Walking Pneumonia
Adobe Stock
By
Published on October 31, 2024
by
Walking pneumonia (also called atypical pneumonia) is a nonmedical term for a mild lung infection.

Unlike people with typical pneumonia, who may become severely ill, people with walking pneumonia can avoid hospitalization but may have to modify their daily routines and are likely to have some fairly uncomfortable symptoms.

Walking pneumonia can affect anyone, but it most often occurs among children between age 5 and 17 as well as young adults.

Overview

What Is Walking Pneumonia?

Walking pneumonia, like all forms of pneumonia, is an infection of tiny air sacs in the lungs called alveoli.

Alveoli take oxygen from the air and allow it to pass into the blood and travel to tissues throughout the body. Alveoli also remove carbon dioxide made by cells during normal metabolic processes and passed into the blood.

When microbes like bacteria invade the lungs, they can infect the alveoli, causing inflammation and swelling in the airways and alveoli.

Signs and Symptoms of Walking Pneumonia

Symptoms of walking pneumonia often resemble those of a chest cold, and can include:

  • Sore throat
  • Extreme tiredness
  • Low-grade fever (less than 101 degrees F)
  • Mild chills
  • Cough
  • Sneezing
  • Headache
  • Chest pain or discomfort
Walking pneumonia can produce different symptoms in young children, including:

graphic titled, walking pneumonia symptoms, illustrated points include sore throat, extreme tiredness, cough, mild chills, diarrhea in kids, wheezing in kids, vomiting in kids, low grade fever (less than 101 degrees F), sneezing, headache, and chest pain
Many symptoms of walking pneumonia can resemble those of a chest cold.

Causes of Walking Pneumonia

While walking pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or in some instances, mold, most cases are due to a type of bacteria called Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae).

Less commonly, Chlamydophila pneumoniae can cause walking pneumonia, as can Legionella pneumophila bacteria (which can also cause a severe type of pneumonia known as Legionnaires' disease).

Viral infections, such influenza, COVID-19, and RSV, can also lead to walking pneumonia.

How Is Walking Pneumonia Different From Regular Pneumonia?

Walking pneumonia and typical pneumonia have different causes. While walking pneumonia is usually linked to Mycoplasma pneumoniae bacteria, typical pneumonia is usually associated with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, and certain viruses (such as those that cause COVID-19 and influenza).

Treatments for these forms of pneumonia differ since the microbes causing the illnesses are different, and the severity of the infections are very different.

While people with walking pneumonia may experience uncomfortable, cold-like symptoms, those with regular pneumonia might struggle to breathe, have intense coughing fits, see their heart rate shoot up, and spike a fever.

Is Walking Pneumonia Contagious?

Walking pneumonia is very contagious, passing from one person to the next through tiny droplets that enter the air when coughing, sneezing, talking, or breathing.

A person with the infection can not only transmit the illness when symptoms appear, but also two to four weeks before any sign of sickness appears (the incubation period). Once symptoms do arrive, they can linger for weeks, during which a person can still remain contagious.


How Is Walking Pneumonia Diagnosed?

In many cases, symptoms are mild and get better on their own, so patients may not even bother to see a doctor for a diagnosis and treatment.

If the condition is aggravating enough, though, a person may end up at the doctor’s office or clinic. Healthcare providers will give a close physical exam, using a stethoscope to listen for crackling and other abnormal sounds in the lungs (auscultation).


Some healthcare providers will X-ray the lungs, and look for a patchy pattern that can indicate infection of the alveoli.

To confirm if a patient has walking pneumonia, a healthcare provider will take throat or nose swabs (or both) and send them out for lab testing to check for bacteria and viruses.

A healthcare provider may also order a Mycoplasma pneumoniae antibody blood test, although this is a less common means of diagnosis.

Treatment and Medication Options for Walking Pneumonia

Walking pneumonia often goes away on its own. Patients are advised to get lots of rest, drink plenty of fluids, and take fever-reducing medicine if needed.

Antibiotics such as erythromycin, clarithromycin, or azithromycin (a class of drugs known as macrolides) can also help.

Some patients may benefit from a second-line antibiotic regimen (when other treatments aren’t working), such as fluoroquinolones or tetracyclines.

Certain viruses that can cause walking pneumonia, like the influenza virus, can be treated with antiviral medication. But for other viral infections there may be no specific treatment other than the standard advice to rest, stay hydrated, and take over-the-counter pain relievers.

Prevention of Walking Pneumonia

As with many respiratory infections, the advice for steering clear of infection and preventing its spread is to:

  • Wash your hands often, especially after coughing or blowing your nose, going to the bathroom, and diapering, and before eating or preparing foods.
  • Cover your mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
  • Don’t smoke or drink alcohol. Smoking and alcohol can inhibit the body’s ability to fight off infection.
  • Maintain overall health. Stick with a healthy diet, rest, and get regular exercise.

Are There Vaccines for Walking Pneumonia?

While there are vaccines that can protect against typical pneumonia, there isn’t a vaccine that can prevent walking pneumonia.

How Long Does Walking Pneumonia Last?

Most people start to feel better within three to five days, but some symptoms can continue for weeks and a cough can linger for weeks or months.

Complications of Walking Pneumonia

Walking pneumonia can occasionally lead to severe and even life-threatening complications, such as:

  • Brain and nervous system infections, such as meningitis, myelitis (inflammation of spinal cord), and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain)
  • Severe lung damage
  • Hemolytic anemia, a condition in which there are not enough red blood cells in the blood because the body is destroying them
  • Respiratory failure requiring breathing machine support (ventilator)


When Should You Call Your Doctor?

If a person with walking pneumonia begins to have a very hard time breathing and is coughing up brown or bloody mucus, it’s time to get medical help.

Other symptoms that may warrant a medical visit include:

  • A very high fever
  • New symptoms, such as an earache, rash, or sore throat
  • Coughing that keeps you from resting or causes severe fatigue and chest pain

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

  • How can you be sure this is walking pneumonia?
  • If it’s not walking pneumonia what else could it be?
  • Are antibiotics needed?
  • Is it okay to take cough medicine?
  • Is it necessary to miss school or work while recuperating?
  • What’s the plan if symptoms get worse?
  • Is it safe to be around someone with walking pneumonia?
  • How can someone not spread walking pneumonia?
  • Should I schedule a follow-up appointment?

The Takeaway

  • Walking pneumonia most often affects children and teenagers.
  • Symptoms are generally mild and usually get better on their own.
  • Because walking pneumonia is often a bacterial infection, antibiotics may help.

Resources We Trust

Meet Our Experts
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network
Michael-S-Niederman-bio

Michael S. Niederman, MD

Medical Reviewer

Michael S. Niederman, MD, is the lead academic and patient quality officer in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City; a professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College; and Lauder Family Professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He was previously the clinical director and associate chief in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center. 

His focus is on respiratory infections, especially in critically ill patients, with a particular interest in disease pathogenisis, therapy, and ways to improve patient outcomes. His work related to respiratory tract infections includes mechanisms of airway colonization, the management of community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia, the role of guidelines for pneumonia, and the impact of antibiotic resistance on the management and outcomes of respiratory tract infections.

He obtained his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine, then completed his training in internal medicine at Northwestern University School of Medicine, before undertaking a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Weill Cornell Medicine, he was a professor in the department of medicine at the State University of New York in Stony Brook and the chair of the department of medicine at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York, for 16 years.

Dr. Niederman served as co-chair of the committees that created the American Thoracic Society's 1993 and 2001 guidelines for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia and the 1996 and 2005 committees that wrote guidelines for the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia. He was a member of the American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America committee that published guidelines for community-acquired pneumonia in 2007. He was also the co-lead author of the 2017 guidelines on nosocomial pneumonia, written on behalf of the European Respiratory Society and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

He has published over 400 peer-reviewed or review articles, and has lectured widely, both nationally and internationally. He was editor-in-chief of Clinical Pulmonary Medicine, is an associate editor of Critical Care and the European Respiratory Review, and serves on the editorial boards of Critical Care Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine. He has previously served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and Chest. For six years, he was a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Chest Physicians, and in 2013, he was elected as a master of the American College of Physicians.

See full bio

Don Rauf

Author

Don Rauf has been a freelance health writer for over 12 years and his writing has been featured in HealthDay, CBS News, WebMD, U.S. News & World Report, Mental Floss, United Press International (UPI), Health, and MedicineNet. He was previously a reporter for DailyRx.com where he covered stories related to cardiology, diabetes, lung cancer, prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction, menopause, and allergies. He has interviewed doctors and pharmaceutical representatives in the U.S. and abroad.

He is a prolific writer and has written more than 50 books, including Lost America: Vanished Civilizations, Abandoned Towns, and Roadside Attractions. Rauf lives in Seattle, Washington.

See full bio
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Atypical (Walking) Pneumonia. Cleveland Clinic. November 1, 2022.
  2. Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Infections Have Been Increasing. National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. October 18, 2024.
  3. Alveoli. National Cancer Institute.
  4. Atypical pneumonia. Mount Sinai.
  5. What Is Walking Pneumonia? American Lung Association. April 14, 2023.
  6. Sparks D. Pneumonia and the ‘Walking Kind’. Mayo Clinic. December 28, 2016.
  7. Auscultation. MedlinePlus. April 27, 2023.
  8. Dueck NP et al. Atypical Pneumonia: Definition, Causes, and Imaging Features. RadioGraphics. April 9, 2021.
  9. Atypical Pneumonia. BMJ Best Practice.
  10. Walking Pneumonia Test. RequestaTest.
  11. Pneumonia. Yale Medicine.
  12. Preventing Pneumonia. American Lung Association. June 7, 2024.
  13. Pneumococcal Vaccination. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. October 26, 2024.
  14. Walking Pneumonia in Children: Care Instructions. MyHealthAlberta. June 12, 2023.
  15. Walking Pneumonia: Care Instructions. Kaiser Permanente. April 30, 2024.