Health
Surge in walking pneumonia affects these high-risk groups, says Dr. Marc Siegel
Cases of so-called “walking pneumonia” are spiking across the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has alerted.
The highly contagious infection has primarily affected young children, according to the same source.
Between March 31 and Oct. 5 of this year, the percentage of cases grew from 1% to 7.2% among children ages 2 to 4, and from 3.6% to 7.4% among those ages 5 to 17, the agency stated.
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Fox News Digital spoke on camera with Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News, about what people should know about this condition.
What is walking pneumonia?
Cases of so-called “walking pneumonia” are spiking across the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has alerted. (iStock)
Also known as “atypical pneumonia,” walking pneumonia is a “mild lung infection,” as defined by Cleveland Clinic. It tends to feel like a bad cold or the flu.
Typically caused by bacteria, viruses or mold exposure, the condition causes swelling in the airways and fluid in the lungs.
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“Walking pneumonia is less than a full lobar pneumonia, where an entire region of the lungs is whited out from a bacteria or virus,” Siegel told Fox News Digital.
“Walking pneumonia generally refers to a patchy pneumonia, where the pathogen isn’t affecting one specific region of lung.”
Symptoms of the infection
Signs of atypical pneumonia may include the following, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Sore throat, low-grade fever, chest pain and coughing are some of the common symptoms of atypical pneumonia. (iStock)
- Sore throat
- Extreme fatigue
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Low-grade fever
- Mild chills
- Coughing (usually the longest-lasting symptom)
- Sneezing
- Headache
The type of cough is a key differentiator between traditional and walking pneumonia, according to Siegel.
“If you have a rip-roaring, traditional bacterial pneumonia, you’re going to be coughing up green, brown or dark yellow,” he said.
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“But with walking pneumonia, it may be a white mucus … or maybe you don’t have a productive cough at all.”
This condition also doesn’t cause the high fever associated with full pneumonia, he noted.
As the name implies, you may be able to walk around and go about your daily activities with this less severe form of pneumonia.
Coughing is one of the longest-lasting symptoms of walking pneumonia, although it may not be a productive cough. (iStock)
“You’re not walking around with a big looming bacterial pneumonia with a high blood cell count and a high fever and chest pain,” Siegel said.
Even if it seems milder, however, this type of infection could still require medical attention, the doctor warned.
“A doctor who is not on the lookout for this could mistake it for a different kind of virus.”
The condition is easy to miss, as the symptoms are often mistaken for something else, according to Siegel.
“A doctor who is not on the lookout for this could mistake it for a different kind of virus, and not understand that it might actually be an atypical bacterial pneumonia,” he told Fox News Digital.
Causes of walking pneumonia
Several different types of bacteria can lead to walking pneumonia, Siegel noted, primarily Mycoplasma.
“This is the season for Mycoplasma,” he said. “That’s an atypical bacterium that’s treatable with certain antibiotics.”
Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium that causes whooping cough, can potentially lead to walking pneumonia, the doctor warned. (iStock)
Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium that causes whooping cough, can also lead to walking pneumonia.
“There’s been a big resurgence of pertussis this year, particularly in very young children,” Siegel said.
“My concern is that we’re overlooking atypical bacteria that would go away a heck of a lot faster if we treated them with antibiotics.”
Legionella, another bacterium that can cause pneumonia, can spread through water or air conditioning units, he warned.
Certain viruses, such as RSV, can also cause pneumonia.
“Although flu doesn’t usually cause pneumonia, it can cause secondary pneumonia where you get these infections on top of influenza — the same thing with COVID,” Siegel noted.
“Although flu doesn’t usually cause pneumonia, it can cause secondary pneumonia where you get these infections on top of influenza,” the doctor cautioned. (iStock)
The resurgence of these pneumonia-causing bacteria and viruses could be a delayed effect of the masking and lockdowns that occurred during the pandemic, the doctor said.
“On top of that, we’re not as well-vaccinated as we should be,” he said. “And physicians are not on the lookout enough … I’m urging them to be on the lookout for atypical pneumonias.”
Who is at highest risk?
Siegel said he is most concerned about young children getting these atypical bacteria, because they may not have the ability to fend them off due to not having fully developed lungs.
“I’m also concerned about the elderly, the immunocompromised and those with chronic illness — especially lung illnesses like asthma and emphysema, as they may not have the reserve they need to fight it off,” he said.
If a virus is behind the walking pneumonia, it may go away without treatment, Siegel said, but it could be more prolonged.
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“My concern is that we’re overlooking atypical bacteria that would go away a heck of a lot faster if we treated them with antibiotics,” the doctor said.
“Things like mycoplasma, legionella, pertussis — that’s what I’m most concerned about here.”
A health care provider can diagnose walking pneumonia by conducting a physical exam, listening to the patient’s lungs, running blood tests and/or performing a chest X-ray. (iStock)
A health care provider can diagnose walking pneumonia by conducting a physical exam, listening to the patient’s lungs, running blood tests and/or performing a chest X-ray, Cleveland Clinic stated.
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Bacterial pneumonias are treated with antibiotics. For viral pneumonias, over-the-counter medications can help relieve symptoms.
Experts also recommend drinking plenty of fluids, getting lots of rest and keeping the airways open by using a humidifier.
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A distraught mother who thought she was having a heart attack was instead hospitalized with broken heart syndrome — otherwise known as takotsubo syndrome (TTS) — less than a year after her veteran son tragically took his own life.
Dawn Turner, 57, of the U.K., lost her son in August of last year.
Just last month, the mom of three awoke with “unbearable” chest pains, she said — and called an ambulance, worried she was going into cardiac arrest. But when she arrived at the hospital, doctors told her she was suffering from the effects of grief caused by a broken heart, as news agency SWNS reported.
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TTS is a temporary, reversible heart condition often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress, such as grief, fear or severe illness, according to experts.
Symptoms usually mimic a heart attack, with sudden and severe chest pain and shortness of breath the most common — and it primarily affects women over the age of 50.
A mom whose soldier son took his own life feared she was suffering cardiac arrest — only to be told by hospital doctors that she was feeling the effects of grief caused by a broken heart. Dawn Turner, mother of deceased soldier Rob Homans, is pictured above, April 2026. (SWNS)
Turner, of Eckington in Worcester, said, “I was [sitting] downstairs earlier that night and thought I had a bit of indigestion. I went to bed and just couldn’t get comfortable — I was breaking out in a sweat and had heart palpitations.
“Then, around midnight, I had pain down my arm and in my jaw. I was still putting it down to indigestion… My partner Paul asked me if I was all right, and I said, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’”
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She said she couldn’t catch her breath — “and my heart felt as though it was missing a beat and then [started] thudding again. For those moments, I truly believed I was having a heart attack.”
“Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat,” Turner was told.
She said her partner called emergency services, and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.
“They came in and linked me up to an ECG. They said, ‘Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat, and it’s all over the place,’” she said, as SWNS reported.
Turner was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
Turner is shown with her son in full dress uniform. He worked as an artilleryman and spent 10 years in the U.K.’s Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006. He was battling mental health challenges after his military service, and ultimately took his own life. (SWNS)
In emergency care, Turner was also given blood tests.
She added, “They came back and said I didn’t have the enzymes produced from a heart attack in my blood. But they said there [was] something going on.”
After undergoing more tests and seeing a cardiologist, Turner was told she had takotsubo syndrome.
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“I told [the doctor] that my heart feels broken. I told her about [my son] Rob, and she said it’s exactly that. She said it’s a real thing, and that I’d been under so much stress. The body can only take so much, and the grief and the stress can be quite physical.”
Turner’s son committed suicide in August 2025 after struggling to get help with his mental health.
He spent 10 years in the Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006, when he worked as an artilleryman.
Turner’s son did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said. After he returned to civilian life, he began suffering from a number of health conditions. She’s shown above with a flower-draped memorial to her son. (SWNS)
He did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said, and returned to civilian life in 2016 before suffering several worsening health conditions.
Turner, who is also the CEO of a veterans charity called Stepway, “When he left the army, he got married, and they settled down in London. He walked straight into a job as a delivery driver. But then his health took a downward spiral, and he started having digestive troubles.”
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He was eventually told he had PTSD — but those symptoms may be similar to those of mild traumatic brain injury, Turner said.
“He was deaf in one ear from using the guns,” she said. “He realized he was putting so much pressure on his marriage, so he moved back up with me. He started to build himself up — then COVID hit.”
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Turner said there were unfortunate delays as her son tried to get access to various services and facilities.
“When people lose loved ones, you’re obviously distraught, but you eventually find closure,” she said, per SWNS. “I found peace when I lost my sister in 2015. But with Rob, I can’t find closure because there’s no justice there.”
“I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” said the grieving mom. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack.” (iStock)
Turner is now on the mend and hopes to be fully recovered in a couple of weeks, SWNS reported.
“Until that moment, I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” she shared. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack. It was a warning sign for me, and for anyone. It can change the shape of one of your heart chambers … it can cause some serious damage.”
She added, “The cardiologist told me that thankfully, my heart itself is healthy and there was no damage, but that it will take around two weeks to a month for my heart to reboot itself.”
“Maybe the extra [heart]beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him,” her partner told her.
Turner was told she needed to rest, seek counseling and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress.
“Things have settled down, and I’m taking things easy — I’m pacing myself now, and I feel a lot better. Paul said, ‘Maybe the extra beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him.’”
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Turner said, “That broke me and healed me a little bit all at once.”
Fox News Digital previously reported that broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, as studies have found.
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In an article published in the European Heart Journal in March 2019, Swiss researchers said they found that the syndrome is linked to the way the brain communicates with the heart.
Broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, studies have found. (iStock)
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition that weakens the left ventricle and disrupts its normal pumping function.
The syndrome causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to change shape and get larger. The heart muscle becomes weaker, and its pumping action loses strength.
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Symptoms include sudden, intense chest pain, pressure or heaviness in the chest, along with shortness of breath.
It is treated with beta blockers and blood-thinning medicine to reduce risks of clots and other flareups.
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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