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China’s hospitals have been overwhelmed with cases of respiratory illnesses and sick children complaining of symptoms of pneumonia, prompting increased scrutiny by the World Health Organization (WHO).
A Beijing children’s hospital told state media CCTV that at least 7,000 patients were being admitted to the facility every day, far exceeding its capacity.
The largest children’s hospital in nearby Tianjin reportedly admitted more than 13,000 children to its outpatient and emergency rooms last week.
Liaoning Province, about 690 km northeast of the capital, is also struggling with high numbers of cases.
The rising case numbers prompted the WHO on Wednesday to make a formal request for disease data on respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children.
It is rare for the UN health agency to publicly seek more detailed information from countries, as such requests are usually made internally. The agency’s China office said this was a “routine” request.
Chinese health authorities later said they had found no “unusual or novel diseases.”
They said the rising infections were a mix of already known viruses and were linked to the country’s first full cold season after strict Covid restrictions were lifted last December.
The lifting of restrictions, along with the spread of known pathogens such as Mycoplasma pneumoniae, may have contributed to the increase in such illnesses, authorities suggested.
The WHO also said on Wednesday that a link between clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia and an increase in respiratory infections is currently unclear.
What has happened so far?
According to the WHO, northern China has reported an increase in “influenza-like illnesses” since mid-October compared to the same period in the previous three years.
On November 21, the public disease surveillance system ProMED had issued an alert about reports of “undiagnosed pneumonia.” ProMED, which is run by health experts, sounded the alarm about the virus that causes Covid in early 2019.
“With the outbreak of pneumonia in China, children’s hospitals in Beijing, Liaoning and other places were overwhelmed with sick children, and schools and classes were on the verge of closing,” ProMED said, citing a report from FTV News.
“It is not at all clear when this outbreak began as it would be unusual for so many children to be affected so quickly.
“This report indicates a widespread outbreak of an undiagnosed respiratory disease in several areas of China, as Beijing and Liaoning are nearly 800 km apart.
“The report does not say that adults were affected, which suggests that some exposure occurred in schools.”
Some parents in Shanghai said Friday they were not too worried about the wave of illness.
“Colds happen all over the world,” Emily Wu said outside a children’s hospital. “I hope that people are not biased because of the pandemic… but look at this from a scientific perspective.”
What are the symptoms?
According to Chinese health authorities, the outbreak may be related to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, also known as “running pneumonia,” a common bacterial infection that typically affects children and has been circulating since May.
Symptoms of walking pneumonia include a sore throat, fatigue, and a persistent cough that can last weeks or months. In severe cases, pneumonia can eventually occur.
A Beijing citizen identified only as Wei told FTV News that infected children “do not cough and have no symptoms.” They just have a high fever (fever) and many develop lung nodules.”
How contagious is the disease?
Bruce Thompson, head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, told Portal that very preliminary data suggested there was nothing out of the ordinary.
“At this point there is no evidence that this could be a new variant of Covid,” he said.
“What is remarkable is that we can be sure that the monitoring processes are working, which is a very good thing.”
The WHO recommended that people in China get vaccinated, isolate themselves when sick, wear masks when necessary and seek medical care when needed.
“As WHO gathers this additional information, we recommend that people in China take measures to reduce the risk of respiratory diseases,” the agency said.
What do scientists say?
Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who has advised the WHO on Covid, said there was a need for “more information, especially diagnostic information”.
“We have to be careful.”
“The challenge is to identify the outbreaks and determine the cause,” said David Heymann of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
He noted that there was likely a background of seasonal respiratory infections.
“I’m not going to hit the pandemic panic button based on what we know so far, but I’m very interested to see China’s response to the WHO and the WHO’s subsequent assessment,” said Brian McCloskey, a public official Health expert who also advised the WHO on the pandemic.
“What we are seeing is the WHO system of international health regulations in action,” he said, referring to the rules that govern how countries cooperate with the WHO on potential outbreaks.
Virologist Tom Peacock of Imperial College London said it was unlikely that the rising infections were happening under the radar because there are now tools that can detect emerging influenza or coronaviruses “fairly quickly.”
“(I) suspect it could end up being something more commonplace or a combination of things – say Covid, flu, RSV.” [respiratory syncytial virus] – but hopefully we’ll know more soon,” he said.