Role of Mycoplasma Pneumoniae?

radeck · Post by **radeck** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 9:07 am

Hi All, this may have been discussed before, but I was hoping to get a summary of information on Mycoplasma Pneumoniae, MS, and the role of ABX. Thank anybody who has the time to respond in advance...

I just tested positive for Mpn. I did this test because I heard about it on the site of Dr. Russell in Sacramento. A patient of his with MS tested positive for it as well as Cpn. I had meant to be tested for Cpn as well, but the nurse who forwarded my request to the doctor simply asked her to test me for Chlamydia (which by default is the STD Trachomatis). I'm hoping to get tested for Cpn as well soon, however have to change PCP first.

In retrospect I likely had Pneumoniae about 7 years ago, where for a month or so I had terrible cough, chills, excessive sweating, fever, chest pain.

What I'm wondering is what chances are that somebody will have both Cpn and Mpn. Do the two infections somehow come together often, or wold it be a pure coincidence? I read that only one out of 140 people in the US have Mpn. I don't know what the prevalence for Cpn is.

Has Mpn been implicated in MS? I was only able to find one paper on the subject. If so, does ABX have the potential to destroy Mpn?

SarahLonglands · Post by **SarahLonglands** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:14 am

From my reading of other people's experiences, if you are positive for mycoplasma you also have Cpn, but the reverse doesn't always hold true. Many more people have Cpn infection than mycoplasma. The same antibiotics will clear both, but mycoplasma is only is henchman to Cpn.

Sarah

radeck · Post by **radeck** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:38 am

Thank you, that is very informative!

radeck · Post by **radeck** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:13 am

Another question, how infectious are Cpn and Mpn? Can they be transferred by breathing the same air in a small room, or does there have to be more serious contact like kissing?

SarahLonglands · Post by **SarahLonglands** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:36 am

Someone can sneeze in the street, you can't avoid it! Cpn, that is.

Sarah

radeck · Post by **radeck** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:55 am

Interesting to hear that it's so highly contagious. Makes me wonder if I simply caught it a couple of months ago from my father, who developed pneumonia during his visit. Or I gave him pneumonia...

If I got it from him, this would make it less likely that the cause of my cough etc years back was the Mpn. Same with the MS.

When reading up on Cpn I saw that it has to be droplet infection, i.e. breathing the same air is not enough.

I know the prevalence of Mpn to be aroun 1/140 in the US.

Does anybody have rough figures for the prevalence of Cpn?

Radeck

SarahLonglands · Post by **SarahLonglands** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 2:01 pm

The droplets can be very tiny, hence you can catch it by being near to someone who sneezes. You can't say if you got anything from your father or vice versa: you can get Cpn or Mpn from anyone, but mycoplasma pn doesn't have anything to do with MS except as a henchman for Cpn, which nearly everyone comes into contact with at some time.

Sriram from Vanderbilt has found it in 97% of people with MS, but as a whole, over 80% of people end up carrying the germ.

Sarah

radeck · Post by **radeck** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:32 pm

Thank you for the information Sarah. The numbers on Cpn are interesting. They re-affirm the idea that MS is about many factors. Genetics and (congenital or not) stenoses are likely some of them.

The reason I was asking about how infectious Cpn/Mpn are and whether I could have gotten it from/transferred it to my dad is because our child was born at the same time I came down with CIS and my parents were visiting. Since we weren't sure about whether we should vaccinate our child, and since I wasn't sure what I had, my wife and I were *very* careful avoiding transmission of things within the family.

I believe that for different pathogens the amount of them one has to get in order for the immune system to start a later measurable response differs. For some things (like HIV) it takes direct blood contact, for others blood can be at the air for a while (Hepatitis), and I thought in case of droplets there are also differences, i.e. in some cases it requires kissing somebody, in other cases an actual drop of saliva flying on ones membranes, in yet other cases one only has to inhale floating particles the other person has exhaled.

willamtarker · Post by **willamtarker** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 8:57 pm

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a type of atypical pneumonia. It is caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae. In most cases of pneumonia caused by M pneumoniae resolve after several weeks, although a dry cough may be present as long as a month.