PEDIATRICS Vol. 39 No. 4 April 1967, pp. 516-525
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SIGNIFICANCE OF MYCOPLASMA INFECTIONS IN CHILDREN WITH RESPIRATORY DISEASE

Wm. Paul Glezen M.D.1, Gloria Thornburg M.T.1, Tom D. Y. Chin M.D.1, and Herbert A. Wenner M.D.1

1 The Kansas City Field Station, Communicable Disease Center, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and the Section for Virus Research Department of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, Kansas

Techniques for the detection of mycoplasma have been utilized in a longitudinal study of respiratory disease in a children's home. M. pharyngis or M. salivarium were detected in almost half of throat samples obtained from children when well or ill. Neither M. pharyngis nor M. salivarium seems to be related etiologically to respiratory disease.

During the first year of observation for mycoplasma, there was no evidence of recent infection with M. pneumoniae. However, in the autumn of 1964, 27 of 46 children had a positive throat sample and/or a significant rise in complement fixing antibodies to M. pneumoniae. M. pneumoniae was recovered from 5 children with a mild pneumonitis and from 10 children who were well. Multiple isolations of M. pneumoniae were obtained as much as 3 months apart from some children. The outbreak was characterized by a rather slow progression of infection and a relatively prolonged carrier state.

Submitted on August 12, 1966
Accepted on November 3, 1966