Some Boston doctors say that while they are seeing more children with respiratory illnesses, the purported “white lung syndrome” does not exist.
What is white lung syndrome, a new medical buzzword, and should parents in Massachusetts be concerned for their kids?
We asked doctors about reports of spiking pneumonia cases that have some people worried, and found.
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What is white lung syndrome?
White lung syndrome is not an actual medical term. Some health officials gave the name to a spike of pediatric pneumonia in Ohio.
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Earlier this week, the Warren County Health District announced that 142 cases of pediatric pneumonia were reported there since August.
Pneumonia shows up on x-rays as a whitening of the lungs, which is where the term white lung comes from.
"Its not even pneumonia of unknown etiology, it's pneumonia of known etiology. It's pneumonia that we see during respiratory season," said Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine Health System.
Is white lung syndrome spreading in Mass.?
With respiratory illnesses spiking in China, medical experts here in the U.S. say there should be more of a push to figure out the cause of those illnesses and how to diagnose them.
"Across the United States and in China, what I would characterize as situational awareness of what infectious organisms are causing which cases of illness is generally poor," said Dr. Brad Perkins, chief medical officer at life sciences company Karius.
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The spike experienced in Ohio, and some of the cases seen here in Massachusetts, aren't indicative of a new strain of pneumonia, doctors say. In fact the symptoms are common, including, a cough fever and fatigue.
"Now, different geographic regions within our state are starting to heat up a little bit more, [but] nowhere in our state are we seeing high levels of those respiratory infections," Doron said.
In the meantime, doctors advise parents to continue taking extra precautions to ensure their children stay safe, including washing their hands, keeping them home from school when they're sick and practicing basic hygiene.
