by Chinese hospitals have been overwhelmed with cases of respiratory illnesses and sick children complaining of pneumonia-like symptoms, prompting increased scrutiny from the World Health Organization (WHO).
A children’s hospital in Beijing told state media CCTV that at least 7,000 patients were being admitted to the institution every day, exceeding its capacity.
Last week, it was reported that the largest pediatric hospital in nearby Tianjin received more than 13,000 children at its outpatient and emergency departments.
Liaoning province, about 690km northeast of the capital, is also grappling with a high number of cases.
The increasing number of cases prompted the WHO on Wednesday to issue a formal request for disease data on the reported respiratory illnesses and pneumonia clusters in children.
The UN health agency rarely publicly seeks 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 not found “unusual or novel diseases”.
They said the rising infections are a mix of already known viruses and are linked to the country’s first full cold season after strict Covid restrictions were lifted last December.
The rise of the curbs, as well as the spread of pathogens known as mycoplasma pneumoniait may have contributed to an increase in cases of such illnesses, the authorities suggested.
The WHO also said on Wednesday that no link between undiagnosed pneumonia clusters and an increase in respiratory infections is clear so far.
What has happened so far?
Northern China has reported an increase in “flu-like illnesses” since mid-October, compared with the same period in the previous three years, according to the WHO.
On November 21, the public disease surveillance system, ProMED, issued a notification about reports of “undiagnosed pneumonia”. ProMED, run by health experts, raised the alarm earlier in 2019 about the virus that causes Covid.
“With the pneumonia outbreak in China, children’s hospitals in Beijing, Liaoning and other places were overwhelmed with sick children, and schools and classes were suspended,” ProMED said, citing a report by FTV News.
“It is not at all clear when this outbreak started as it would be unusual for so many children to be affected so quickly.
“This report indicates that there is a widespread outbreak of undiagnosed respiratory illness in some areas in China as Beijing and Liaoning are almost 800 km apart.
“The report does not say that any adults were affected, suggesting that they had some exposure in the schools.”
Some parents in Shanghai said on Friday that they were not overly concerned about the wave of illness.
“Colds happen all over the world,” Emily Wu said outside a children’s hospital. “I hope people won’t be prejudiced by the pandemic… but look at this from a scientific point of view.”
What are the symptoms?
According to Chinese health authorities, the outbreak could be linked to it mycoplasma pneumoniaalso known as “walking pneumonia”, a common bacterial infection that usually affects children in circulation since May.
Symptoms of walking pneumonia include a sore throat, fatigue and a weak cough that can last for weeks or months. In severe cases, this can progress to pneumonia.
A citizen of Beijing, identified only as Wei, told FTV News that “infected children” do not cough and have no symptoms. They just have a high temperature (fever) and many develop pulmonary nodules.”
How contagious is the disease?
Bruce Thompson, head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, told Reuters very preliminary data suggested there was nothing out of the ordinary.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that it could be a new version of Covid,” he said.
“One thing to note is that we can be sure that the surveillance processes are working, which is very good.”
The WHO advised people in China to get vaccinated, isolate if they feel sick, wear masks if necessary and get medical care as needed.
“While the WHO seeks this additional information, we recommend that people in China follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness,” the agency said.
What are scientists saying?
Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who advised the WHO on Covid, said that “more information, especially diagnostic information” is needed.
“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 indicated that there was a likely background of seasonal respiratory infections.
“I’m not going to push the pandemic panic button based on what we know so far, but I will be very interested to see the WHO response from China and the WHO assessment afterwards,” said Brian McCloskey , community. health expert who also advised the WHO on the pandemic.
“What we are seeing is the WHO International Health Regulations system in action”, he said, referring to the rules governing how countries work with the WHO on potential outbreaks.
Virologist Tom Peacock of Imperial College London said the rising infections were unlikely to have gone under the radar because tools now exist “very quickly” to pick up the emerging flu or coronavirus.
“(I) suspect it could be something more specific or a combination of things – say Covid, flu, RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] – but we hope to have more information soon,” he said.
