Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Eaton atypicalpneumonia agent) in children's respiratory infections

Mycoplasma pneumoniae causes pneumonia and other lower respiratory disease inchildren and adults. This disease agent was found in a population of institutionalized children, although some of the children from whom it was isolated were apparently ill from something else, usually a virus infection. Children with left-to-right cardiac shunts were frequently infected. Detectable antibody levels were common, but primary infections appeared in small clusters separated by many months. Although the opportunities for a widespread infection were present in this closed population, the pattern of dissemination was slow and limited in scope. The carrier state and opportunistic infections with M. pneumoniae are still an unknown quantity.