According to Mi Ying, deputy chief physician of pediatrics at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, this bug can cause mild, severe, or even critical illness. “The severity isn’t just related to the invasion by the pathogen, but to the person’s immune response,” he told the Workers’ Daily.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is among the known pathogens in circulation in CHina currently, is known to cause mild infections, the US CDC reported. Children who get Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection usually have signs of a chest cold and show symptoms like sore throat, fever, headache, wheezing, vomiting, stuffy nose and sneezing.

Flu causes mild to severe illness with symptoms like fatigue, sore throat, muscle ache, cough, and fever.

Infected kids in China are currently showing symptoms like fever, sore throat, fatigue, fever and a lingering cough. The infection is most commonly treated with antibiotics, China Daily reported last month citing the increase in mycoplasma pneumonia cases among kids.