Walking pneumonia is a mild form of the disease that used to kill thousands before the discovery of antibiotics and the pneumonia vaccination, but it can be tricky because most of the people that have it confuse it with influenza, and they use the wrong treatment for it, thus allowing it to advance.

Children under the age of 15 are at a higher risk to get this illness, but everybody can have it. It is known that it quickly spreads in schools or army barracks, because in the institutions mentioned above people stay close together and the microorganisms that cause it enter the bodies of many.

Its first symptom is a mild sore throat that gets worse as days pass. Then a dry cough shows up. As its name suggests, walking pneumonia does not make the people that have it stay in bed, its effects are not severe so the patient can tend to his/her normal activities, but this is not recommended if he/she works in an environment with many people. Also, one infected with walking pneumonia will feel a general state of fatigue all the time.

The main problem is that its symptoms are the same with the cold or influenza symptoms. After the coughing a mild fever may also appear, accompanied by a running nose, exactly the same when you have a cold. The first clue that you do not have a simple cold is that the coughing cannot be cured with the regular medication, because the bacteria that cause pneumonia can only be treated with antibiotics. Furthermore, although you took your regular cough medicine, it gets worse and worse until you take antibiotics.

This can make walking pneumonia a tricky, miserable disease, but once it is discovered it can very easily be cured with just a few antibiotics. In a few days it will be gone, but the hard part is to realize that you have pneumonia and not just a cold.

Remembering the symptoms and facts mentioned above can spare you of the trouble of confusing walking pneumonia with influenza, but the best thing to do if you suspect that you have this illness is to consult your doctor as soon as you see that your cough gets worse although you are taking cough medicine.