Cases of mycoplasma infection have been identified in Russia

Mycoplasma infection, an outbreak of which began in China, has arrived in Russia. According to Rospotrebnadzor, single cases of the disease have been recorded in the country so far. At the same time, from the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is known that estimates of the number of people sickened by this organization are often inaccurate.

Rospotrebnadzor did not specify in which regions the first cases of infection were registered. However, there are still no changes in the clinical picture of the disease, including the development of more severe forms of infection.

Now epidemiologists are investigating all group cases of the disease, including in organized collectives, conducting a comprehensive diagnosis of the sick and those in contact with them, organizing anti-epidemic measures.

Rospotrebnadzor added that in recent days several countries, including China, Germany, France and Italy, have reported an increase in the number of patients with respiratory diseases, affecting mainly children.

In November, a number of foreign media reported on an outbreak of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China. The Telegraph newspaper wrote that local hospitals were "overloaded with sick children," and the increase in the incidence of the disease was observed in all cities.  Similar data was cited by the Taiwanese TV channel FTV News. In the story, Beijing residents reported that children showing signs of colds were banned from coming to schools. 

A few days later, the WHO asked the Chinese authorities for data on the increase in the incidence of the disease. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Beijing Children's Hospital reported that the reason was the lifting of covid restrictions and known seasonal pathogens: influenza, adenovirus, mycoplasma pneumoniae and respiratory syncytial virus. 

Mycoplasmas are microorganisms that belong to bacteria but lack a cell wall, making many aspects of their life history unusual in bacteria and distantly similar to similar aspects in viruses and protozoa.

There are at least 13 species of mycoplasmas in humans. Most are part of the normal microflora of the oral and genitourinary tract, but a few species, such as Mycoplasma pneumoniae, cause diseases of the respiratory system.

As a rule, the first symptoms of Mycoplasma pneumoniae are runny nose, stuffy nose, sore throat and coughing. Also, the sick people have a severe, persistent cough with scanty sputum and a spotty or nodular rash on the skin. 

To date, really large outbreaks of diseases associated with mycoplasma have not yet been recorded. Therefore, it is difficult to assess its epidemiologic potential. It probably infects and kills fewer people than coronavirus (currently it provokes more than 50 hospitalizations per hour in Russia alone), but the final understanding of the danger of the current outbreak will come only later.