Hospitals in China are inundated with cases of respiratory illness and sick children suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms, prompting further scrutiny from the World Health Organization (WHO).
A children’s hospital in Beijing told state media CCTV that the institution was admitting at least 7,000 patients a day, far exceeding its capacity.
Last week, more than 13,000 children were reportedly admitted to the outpatient and emergency rooms of the largest pediatric hospital in nearby Tianjin.
Liaoning province, about 690 km northeast of the capital, is also struggling with high case numbers.
The rising number of cases prompted the WHO on Wednesday to issue a formal request for disease data on respiratory illnesses in children and reported clusters of pneumonia.
It is rare for the UN health agency to publicly request more detailed information from countries, as such requests are usually made internally. The agency’s China office said it was a “routine” request.
Chinese health authorities later said they found “no unusual or new disease.”
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.
Removal of sidewalks with circulation of known pathogens mycoplasma pneumoniaOfficials suggested that it may have contributed to the increase in cases of such diseases.
The WHO also said on Wednesday that any link between undiagnosed pneumonia clusters and the rise in respiratory infections is unclear at this time.
What happened so far?
Northern China has reported an increase in “flu-like illnesses” since mid-October compared to the same period in the previous three years, according to the World Health Organization.
On November 21, the public disease surveillance system ProMED published a notification regarding reports of “undiagnosed pneumonia.” ProMED, which is run by healthcare experts, raised 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 elsewhere were overwhelmed with sick children, and schools and classrooms were on the verge of being closed,” ProMED said, citing a report by FTV News.
“It is not clear exactly when this outbreak started, as it is unusual for so many children to be affected so quickly.
“This report suggests a widespread outbreak of an undiagnosed respiratory disease in several parts of China, as Beijing and Liaoning are almost 800 km apart.
“The report does not say any adults were affected, which suggests there was some exposure in schools.”
Some parents in Shanghai on Friday said 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 because of the pandemic… but look at it from a scientific perspective.”
What are the symptoms?
According to Chinese health officials, the outbreak may be linked to: mycoplasma pneumoniaAlso known as “walking pneumonia,” it is a common bacterial infection that usually affects children and has been circulating since May.
Symptoms of walking pneumonia include sore throat, fatigue, and a persistent cough that can last for weeks or months. In severe cases, this condition can turn into pneumonia over time.
The Beijing citizen, identified only as Wei, told FTV News that the infected children “did not cough and showed no symptoms.” “They just have high body temperatures (fever) and many of them develop lung nodules.”
How contagious is the disease?
Bruce Thompson, head of the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne School of Health Sciences, told Reuters that preliminary data showed nothing unusual.
“At this stage, there is no evidence that there may be a new variant of Covid,” he said.
“One thing to note is that we make sure the surveillance processes are working, which is a very good thing.”
WHO has recommended that people in China get vaccinated, isolate themselves if they feel sick, wear a mask if necessary, and seek medical care when necessary.
“While WHO seeks this additional information, we recommend that people in China take precautions to reduce the risk of respiratory disease,” the agency said.
What do scientists say?
Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, who advises the WHO on Covid, said “more information, especially diagnostic information” was needed.
“We must be careful.”
“The challenge is to distinguish outbreaks and determine the cause,” said David Heymann of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
He noted a possible history of seasonal respiratory infections.
“I’m not going to push the pandemic panic button based on what we know so far, but I would love to see the response from China to the WHO and the WHO’s assessment thereafter,” said Brian McCloskey, a public insider. He is also the health expert who advises the WHO on the pandemic.
“What we are seeing is WHO’s International Health Regulations system is in operation,” he said, referring to rules that govern how countries will work with WHO on potential outbreaks.
Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, said rising infections were unlikely to be ignored because there were now tools that could catch emerging flu or coronaviruses “fairly quickly”.
“(I) suspect it could be something more mundane or a combination of these – like Covid, flu, RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] – but hopefully we will know more soon,” he said.