Mycoplasma pneumoniae is an important pathogen of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children, with a coinfection rate of 52% in some areas.

A recent study published in BMC Infectious Diseases aimed to identify the effects of coinfection of M. pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) with different pathogens.

In this study, 30 cases were included in the research group – MPP patients coinfected with Human adenovirus (HAdV), and 90 in the control group – patients with single M. pneumoniae infection.

The findings showed that that patients in the research group had longer hospital stays, longer fever durations and a higher rate of dyspnea, as well as greater applications of oxygen therapy and noninvasive continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP). On the other hand, no obvious differences were found in laboratory tests among the two groups. However, the proportions of extremely severe pneumonia and severe disease were higher in the research group than in the control group.

Thus, it was concluded that compared with single M. pneumoniae infection, MPP coinfected with HAdV in children was relatively more serious.

Source: BMC Infectious Diseases. 2020 Jun 16;20(1):420. doi: 10.1186/s12879-020-05152-x.