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Walking pneumonia uptick across the state addressed at Connecticut Children’s

Dr. Juan Salazar, physician-in-chief at Connecticut Children's, offered advice for parents on what signs to look out for.

HARTFORD, Conn. — Walking pneumonia is on the rise across Connecticut, according to Dr. Juan Salazar, physician-in-chief at Connecticut Children's Hospital and infectious disease specialist.

Salazar said that the past six weeks have seen a "dramatic increase in what we call mycoplasma pneumonia."

He offered parents advice on what signs to look out for.

“As a parent, most of the time what you will see is a kids who have a cough and they may have a high fever, they might have difficulty eating, they might have difficulty just attending school because they just can’t breathe well.” Salazar said. “If you see any of that that is the time you need to bring the kid to the emergency room or to the attention of the pediatrician.”

Salazar stressed that this latest round of walking pneumonia is no reason to sound any alarm bells. 

“As an infectious disease specialist, I’ve taken care of many kids with mycoplasma pneumonia, the majority, 95-98% do quite well with an antibiotic; a small percentage will be admitted to the hospital and if you are admitted we will be about to treat it, so I don’t want people to panic," Salazar said. “We can take care of this, it is something we need to pay attention to.”

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Jimmy Altman is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at jaltman@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram

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