Winter illnesses return with a vengeance

All this comes on top of other common infections, according to Sean O’Leary, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and chair of the committee on infectious diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics. For example, mycoplasma pneumonia, which can cause “walking pneumonia,” and whooping cough are still spreading widely. “We’re seeing quite a bit of that this year, unfortunately,” O’Leary says.