What to do about Mycoplasma infections in children

Mycoplasma infection is a common infection in children, of which Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection is relatively more common, once infected can be manifested as Mycoplasma pneumonia, or just manifested as acute upper respiratory tract infections, usually diagnosed through the examination of Mycoplasma IGM antibody, once diagnosed must be actively treated. Mycoplasma infection can cause systemic organ damage, there can be myocarditis, hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, nephritis, meningitis and so on. Once diagnosed, it should be treated with macrolide antibiotics against infection. Commonly used are azithromycin and erythromycin. Currently azithromycin is more commonly used to treat mycoplasma infections, course of mycoplasma infections are self-limiting, and many mild cases can be self-cured without treatment. If the child’s infection is more serious, with persistent high fever and even respiratory distress, you can consider the intravenous use of macrolide antibiotics. In the use of macrolide antibiotics at the same time, need to be based on the child’s performance to give symptomatic supportive treatment, for coughing and wheezing is more obvious children, you can choose to nebulizer inhalation, the child has a significant fever, and there are signs of discomfort can be given to the oral antipyretic drugs, commonly used antipyretic drugs such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen. For children with other organ injuries, appropriate symptomatic treatment should be given according to the situation. Mycoplasma infections can occur year-round and have certain epidemiologic cycles. Once Mycoplasma infection is diagnosed, treatment with macrolide antibiotics is effective.