What is White Lung Syndrome? Mysterious pneumonia fast striking children

Ohio is experiencing a ‘White Lung’ nightmare as 142 child cases of the disease have been registered. Read more below.

A huge number of children are being hospitalized with mysterious pneumonia in Ohio- which is the first American state to report an outbreak similar to that in China.

"Not only is this above the county average, it also meets the Ohio Department of Health definition of an outbreak," said the officials on Wednesday.

According to health officials in Warren County, there have been 142 pediatric cases of the condition which has been dubbed as the ‘white lung syndrome’, since August.

"Not only is this above the county average, it also meets the Ohio Department of Health definition of an outbreak," said the officials on Wednesday.

There are concerns that an American outbreak of the virus that has overrun Chinese hospitals may occur due to the transmission of cases. Numerous European nations are facing comparable predicaments.

However, a source at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, nationally, “nothing is out of the ordinary.”

Ohio officials are looking into what is causing the illness wave, but they do not believe it is a novel respiratory ailment. Instead, they believe a combination of multiple common viruses that are striking at the same time are to blame.

Patients with an average of eight, however, some as young as three, have been diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia, a bacterial lung infection.

Bacterial respiratory infections usually flare up every few years, normally as people are recovering from a wave of flu or other viral illnesses.

One theory suggests that lockdowns, mask wear, and school closures during the pandemic have decreased children's immune, making them more susceptible to seasonal infections.

Every few years, bacterial respiratory infections typically resurface while patients are recuperating from a viral sickness or flu wave.

Warren County officials have advised to wash your hands, cover your cough, stay at home when ill and be updated on vaccines as some ways of preventing the spread.

Symptoms as described by doctors are fever, cough and fatigue.

This comes after the Netherlands and Denmark also said they were recording mysterious spikes in pneumonia cases, many of which are being attributed in part to mycoplasma.

While CDC thinks the cases are following a ‘seasonal trend’ they are ‘continuing to monitor.’