Maryland, along with the rest of the nation, is seeing an uptick in walking pneumonia cases, especially among young children.

Cases have increased, starting in the late summer and early fall, and are continuing as winter nears.

“The weird thing about this is that it usually affects school age children and older children, but this time we're seeing it in younger age children,” said Dr. Theresa Nguyen, chief of pediatrics at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson, at a recent Baltimore Banner event.

Nguyen said children aged 2 to 4 are particularly impacted this year, however, the disease is still infecting school-aged children as well.

Nationally, 7.6% of ER visits for babies and children aged 5-17 in the first week of November were related to the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Walking pneumonia is a bacterial infection that causes fever, congestion and coughing.

The official name for the illness is Mycoplasma Pneumoniae.

The CDC released an alert in October about the increasing cases of walking pneumonia.

“M. pneumoniae infections are common, with an estimated 2 million infections occurring each year in the United States,” the alert states. “So far in 2024, CDC has seen an increase in the percentage of pneumonia-associated emergency department visits with a discharge diagnosis of M. pneumoniae. The increase in children ages 2–4 years is notable because M. pneumoniae historically hasn't been recognized as a leading cause of pneumonia in this age group.”

The disease can be treated with antibiotics.