Washington Post Cases of walking pneumonia have been surging among young children in the D.C. region, according to pediatricians and public health officials. Nell Codner, a 48-year-old federal worker from near Annapolis, didn’t worry two weeks ago when her 10-year-old twin daughters developed a cough.
“Who touched what and didn’t wash their hands?” she recalled saying to herself, brushing it off as a fall cold or a bug going around school. “Their immune systems are built up. They’re fine.” But when one of the girls complained of ear pain, the pediatrician discovered a blister — a sign of walking pneumonia — and prescribed an antibiotic. The illness cleared up with medicine, and the girls were back to their rambunctious selves within days.