Rhode Island Department of Health

Health Alert
01/01/07
Expanded Investigation of Mycoplasma Pneumoniae

Provider/Facility Recommendations

The Health Department (HEALTH) has been investigating a possible outbreak of mycoplasma pneumoniae in Rhode Island. This past week HEALTH provided a course of prophylactic antibiotics (primarily azithromycin) to students and staff of the Greenwood Elementary School in Warwick and to their immediate family members. This approach has been used in institutional settings in the past during outbreaks of mycoplasma pneumoniae illness.

HEALTH is currently investigating a possible increase of mycoplasma infection in the community.

It is likely that the increased attention this has received will result in your patients asking about diagnostic testing and treatment.

Common signs and symptoms of mycoplasma infection are cough, fever and sore throat. It may also cause cough, otitis media, sinusitis and pneumonia.

Mycoplasma only rarely causes meningitis or encephalitis but caution dictates that mycoplasma be considered as part of the differential diagnosis.

Routine testing for mycoplasma should include throat swabs and serological titers (acute and convalescent). Unfortunately, these results will not be available in a timely fashion to guide treatment for an individual patient. Thus treatment decisions should be based upon clinical and epidemiologic grounds.

Treatment of mycoplasma infection may be done with azithromycin type antibiotics (e.g., zithromax), tetracyclic type antibiotics or quinolones.

All patients should be instructed in routine prevention with good hand hygiene and cough etiquette.

Staff from the Rhode Island Department of Health may be contacting your office or facility over the course of next several weeks to obtain additional information on specific children identified in school health records as possibly having had pneumonia over the past two months. We appreciate your assistance and cooperation with these efforts.

For more information on Mycoplasma see:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/mycoplasmapneum_t.htm

For the most current Rhode Island information, providers may call 1-800-942-7434 (Family Health Information Line) or see http://www.health.ri.gov/