The Department of Health revealed on Wednesday that it has logged four confirmed cases of mycoplasma pneumoniae infection or "walking pneumonia" among recorded influenza-like illness cases as of 25 November.

In a statement, the DoH said that the cases have been reported in the previous morbidity weeks 3, 30, 37 and 38 with one case each and that the existing surveillance is among ILI cases only.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is not a new pathogen and it has been previously detected among local cases and the DoH explained that children infected with this type of pneumonia do not feel sick enough to lay on the bed to rest, thus the term "walking" pneumonia.

Latest DoH data showed that ILI cases nationwide started to increase during late August on morbidity week 34 and a higher number of cases was sustained over the next several weeks.

"However, the case increase has started to slow down with a total of 9,834 ILI cases reported in the recent three to four weeks or morbidity weeks 44 to 45 or 29 October to 11 November 2023, about 11 percent lower than the 11,106 cases reported two weeks prior. Based on the five-year data, ILI cases are expected to continue declining in the coming weeks but are expected to rise again by the start of January," said the Health department.

The public is encouraged to perform individual self-assessment and employs layers of protection — masking, ensuring adequate ventilation, isolating when sick, as well as getting vaccinated and boosted — to prevent respiratory infections from further increasing, especially this holiday season.