Mycoplasma pneumoniae: delayed re-emergence after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions
Patrick M. Meyer Sauteur, Michael L. Beeton, Sabine Pereyre, Cécile Bébéar, Marie Gardette, Nadège Hénin, Noémie Wagner, Adrien Fischer, Alessandra Vitale, Baptiste Lemaire, Gilbert Greub, René Brouillet, Petra Zimmermann, Philipp Agyeman, Christoph Aebi, Michael Buettcher, Marisa Hostettler, Lisa Kottanattu, Valeria Gaia, Frank Imkamp, Adrian Egli, Christoph Berger, Semjon Sidorov, Ester Osuna, Romy Tilen, Anita Niederer-Loher, G Dollenmaier, Florence Barbey, Ulrich Heininger, Daniel Goldenberger, Branislav Ivan, Peter M. Keller, Cihan Papan, Sören L. Becker, Johannes Förster, Colin R. MacKenzie, Birgit Henrich, Melissa Vermeulen, Nathalie Bossuyt, Veerle Matheeussen, Mireille van Westreenen, Marius Vogel, Annemarie M. C. van Rossum, Baharak Afshar, Simon Cottrell, Catherine Moore, Søren Anker Uldum, Hanne‐Dorthe Emborg, Karolina Gullsby, Miia K. Laine, Ville Peltola, Santtu Heinonen, Henrik Døllner, Frode Gran Width, Andreas Christensen, Danilo Buonsenso, Fernanda Rodrigues, Jorge Rodrigues, Katerina Tsantila, Minos Matsas, Eleni Kalogera, Evangelia Petridou, Ioannis Kopsidas, Darja Keše, Ran Nir‐Paz, Hila Elinav, Ayelet Michael-Gayego, Tomohiro Oishi, Takeshi Saraya, Tsuyoshi Kenri, Yu‐Chia Hsieh, Tsung-Hua Wu, Matthias Maiwald, Liat Hui Loo, Tanu Sagar, Rama Chaudhry, Larry K. Kociolek, Kami D Kies, Jill M. Mainella, Jessica Kapinos, Robin Patel, Nadia Rodríguez, David H. Lorenz, Matthew Blakiston
Abstract
Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a common cause of respiratory tract infections with community-acquired pneumonia as the major disease-related burden. Compared with other pathogens, M pneumoniae is atypical in many ways: it is one of the smallest self-replicating organisms, has a reduced and highly stable genome (0·8 Mbp), lacks a cell wall, grows slowly (generation time 6 h), requires close contact for transmission, and has a distinct disease presentation (atypical pneumonia), the pathogenesis of which might involve host cell-mediated immunity.