COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) MU Health doctors are notifying Mid-Missouri residents to be aware of increased pneumonia and whooping cough cases. MU Health Care Dr.
Christopher Sampson said the medical system has seen an uptick in pneumonia cases. Sampson said these higher rates seem to be consistent with what other doctors across the United States are seeing. On Oct.
18, the CDC released an article on mycoplasma pneumonia, or walking pneumonia. Walking pneumonia causes less intense symptoms and is becoming more common. According to Yale Medicine , if left untreated, walking pneumonia can become serious.
"You still have typical symptoms of pneumonia. You may have a cough, fever, shorter breath, but you will often not be as sick as if you have other types of pneumonia," Sampson said. Due to its similarities to the flu and sometimes the common cold, cases of walking pneumonia tend to fly under the radar unless a patient visits a doctor's office and gets tested.
Cases of walking pneumonia have normally been seen in children and young adults. University of Missouri sophomore Jack Shoemaker recently came down with a full case of pneumonia earlier in October and has been feeling its effects for over two weeks. He felt the most intense symptoms early on.
"I was out," Shoemaker said. "By that point, I was throwing up, I had the chills, I had had a really bad headache, I couldn't get food down, I was just overall exhausted." Shoemaker said it seemed like a lot of students on the University of .