Mycoplasma pneumoniae: summary of laboratory reports January to September 2020
Updated 8 January 2021
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Background
Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Mpn) is a bacterium that causes acute respiratory illness ranging in severity from mild illness to severe pneumonia. It can be fatal in some cases and has rarely been associated with severe complications such as encephalitis. Further information can be found on the Public Health England (PHE) Mycoplasma pneumoniae web page.
These analyses are based on laboratory reports of Mpn from January to September 2020 in England and Wales (EW), extracted from PHE’s voluntary surveillance database Second Generation Surveillance System (SGSS), with previously reported data from the past 5 full years shown for comparison and context.
Laboratory reports included were limited to:
- serological methods on blood, serum or plasma
- nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT), including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on blood, serum, plasma, throat, nose/nasal, bronchial, upper respiratory tract, broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL), alveolar, naso-pharyngeal aspirate (NPA), endotracheal aspirate, trachea or sputum
Data presented here may differ from that in earlier publications, due to inclusion of late reports, and the voluntary nature of this surveillance may lead to underestimates of disease.
Rates of laboratory detection were calculated using mid-year resident population estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the respective year in England and Wales. Geographical analyses by region were based on location of the reporting laboratory.
It is recommended that results from serological analyses are interpreted with caution, as NAAT methods are considered to produce a more robust indication of acute infection.
Overall Mycoplasma pneumoniae cases reported: January 2015 to September 2020
Table 1: Cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae reported, by NAAT methods
| Year | Cases | Gender | Overall annual rate of detection/million population** | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Unknown | |||
| 2015 | 161 | 78 | 83 | 0 | 2.78 |
| 2016 | 241 | 119 | 122 | 0 | 4.12 |
| 2017 | 65 | 35 | 30 | 0 | 1.11 |
| 2018 | 58 | 28 | 30 | 0 | 0.98 |
| 2019 | 156 | 77 | 79 | 0 | 2.63 |
| 2020* | 152 | 71 | 81 | 0 | - |
*Includes data up to the end of September 2020 only
**Population estimates for 1: England; 2: Wales
Table 2: Cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae reported, by serological methods
| Year | Cases | Gender | Overall annual rate of detection/million population** | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Unknown | |||
| 2015 | 417 | 210 | 206 | 1 | 7.20 |
| 2016 | 462 | 232 | 226 | 4 | 7.91 |
| 2017 | 485 | 248 | 235 | 2 | 8.26 |
| 2018 | 335 | 171 | 161 | 3 | 5.66 |
| 2019 | 576 | 288 | 284 | 4 | 9.70 |
| 2020* | 439 | 223 | 212 | 4 | - |
*Includes data up to the end of September 2020 only
**Population estimates for 1: England; 2: Wales
Table 3: Cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae by age group, reported by NAAT methods
| Year | Number of cases per age group in years (%) | Total cases | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-4 | 5-9 | 10-14 | 15-44 | 45-64 | 65+ | Unknown | ||
| 2015 | 53 (32.9) | 17 (10.6) | 6 (3.7) | 58 (36.0) | 16 (9.9) | 11 (6.8) | 0 (0.0) | 161 |
| 2016 | 76 (31.5) | 22 (9.1) | 7 (2.9) | 103 (42.7) | 27 (11.2) | 6 (2.5) | 0 (0.0) | 241 |
| 2017 | 17 (26.2) | 4 (6.2) | 5 (7.7) | 22 (33.8) | 13 (20.0) | 4 (6.2) | 0 (0.0) | 65 |
| 2018 | 26 (44.8) | 5 (8.6) | 3 (5.2) | 16 (27.6) | 5 (8.6) | 3 (5.2) | 0 (0.0) | 58 |
| 2019 | 45 (28.8) | 21 (13.5) | 12 (7.7) | 51 (32.7) | 20 (12.8) | 7 (4.5) | 0 (0.0) | 156 |
| 2020* | 41 (27.0) | 36 (23.7) | 13 (8.6) | 40 (26.3) | 11 (7.2) | 11 (7.2) | 0 (0.0) | 152 |
*Includes data up to the end of September 2020 only
Table 4: Cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae by age group, reported by serological methods
| Year | Number of cases per age group in years (%) | Total cases | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-4 | 5-9 | 10-14 | 15-44 | 45-64 | 65+ | Unknown | ||
| 2015 | 26 (6.2) | 49 (11.8) | 32 (7.7) | 162 (38.8) | 87 (20.9) | 60 (14.4) | 1 (0.2) | 417 |
| 2016 | 38 (8.2) | 47 (10.2) | 42 (9.1) | 181 (39.2) | 81 (17.5) | 69 (14.9) | 4 (0.9) | 462 |
| 2017 | 51 (10.5) | 69 (14.2) | 59 (12.2) | 158 (32.6) | 76 (15.7) | 72 (14.8) | 0 (0.0) | 485 |
| 2018 | 20 (6.0) | 44 (13.1) | 27 (8.1) | 110 (32.8) | 55 (16.4) | 79 (23.6) | 0 (0.0) | 335 |
| 2019 | 41 (7.1) | 58 (10.1) | 48 (8.3) | 211 (36.6) | 105 (18.2) | 111 (19.3) | 2 (0.3) | 576 |
| 2020* | 24 (5.5) | 54 (12.3) | 45 (10.3) | 150 (34.2) | 86 (19.6) | 80 (18.2) | 0 (0.0) | 439 |
*Includes data up to the end of September 2020 only
Figure 1: Laboratory detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in England and Wales (3-weekly moving average) January 2010 to September 2020
This chart shows a 3-weekly moving average of Mycoplasma pneumoniae laboratory detections per week reported to PHE from January 2010 to September 2020. Epidemic peaks of case detections can be seen at approximately 3 to 4 year intervals with smaller seasonal peaks in intervening years; the most recent epidemic peak was in winter 2019 to 2020.
Acknowledgements
This report is only made possible by the weekly contributions from microbiology colleagues in laboratories across England and Wales.
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