How to Diagnose Mycoplasma Infections

A mycoplasma infection is usually a respiratory illness caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Mycoplasmas are related to bacteria but lack a cell wall. These infections are not particularly contagious and require prolonged contact with the respiratory secretions of an infected person to be transmitted. It rarely affects children under 5. The following steps will show how to diagnose mycoplasma infections.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Expect symptoms of a mycoplasma infection to appear 15 to 25 days after exposure and gradually develop over 2 to 4 days. The symptoms last for a few days to more than a month.
2. Check the upper respiratory tract for infection. Mycoplasma infections also may be accompanied by coughing, fatigue, fever and headaches. It may progress to tracheobronchitis accompanied by dry coughing and fever with 5 to 10 percent of cases developing into mild pneumonia. Mycoplasm also may infect the inner ear in 20 percent of the cases.
3. Look for non-respiratory symptoms of a mycoplasma infection. It also may cause abdominal pain and diarrhea, and infect the urogenital tract and the joints.
4. Eliminate other diagnoses first. Mycoplasm infections frequently do not respond to the typical antibiotics and are not specifically identified in 50 percent of the cases.
5. Diagnose mycoplasma infections clinically in most cases. A nonspecific test of the blood for cold antigens can confirm a diagnosis but is not always positive. More specific tests are normally used only to track outbreaks.