Watch out for pneumonia

Recently our household went through a bout of illness that we initially thought was COVID, but when we tested for it we were all negative. My daughter had several days off school with a cough that seemed to just be getting worse, and we took her to the local hospital where they did a chest x-ray – and lo and behold it was pneumonia.

Graphic made via Canva

It's definitely not the first thing I would have expected it to be (I think after the last few years all of us immediately assume it’s COVID when we have cold-like symptoms, especially a cough) but apparently it has been going around this year.

I'd be especially careful if you have children or work with them, as it's said to be caused by mycoplasma bacteria and spread most easily among kids. This article from NHK World has a bit more information about some of the record pneumonia highs that Japan has been seeing.

Has anyone you know been affected by the significant numbers of pneumonia this year?