Children in hospitals in China with respiratory ailments and illnesses complaining of pneumonia-like symptoms have prompted a major investigation by the World Health Organization.
Beijing Children’s Hospital earlier told state media CTV that at least 7,000 patients are being admitted to the facility every day, which is beyond capacity.
Last week, the largest children’s hospital in nearby Tianjin reportedly admitted more than 13,000 children in outpatient and emergency departments.
Liaoning province, 690 km northeast of the capital, is also struggling with a high number of cases.
China’s Ministry of Health has asked local authorities to increase the number of fever clinics.
“Efforts should be made to increase the number of relevant clinics and medical facilities, extend service hours appropriately, and strengthen the guarantee of drug supply,” said Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission.
“There is a need to do a better job of preventing and controlling outbreaks and reducing the flow and visits of people in crowded places like schools, daycares and nursing homes.”
The ever-increasing number of cases prompted the World Health Organization to issue a formal request for information on respiratory disease 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 it was a “routine” request.
Chinese health officials later said they had found no “unusual or new diseases”.
The rising infections are a mix of previously known viruses and are linked to the country’s first full cold season since strict Covid restrictions were lifted last December, he said.
Lifting curves, such as the spread of popular pathogens mycoplasma pneumoniaeOfficials have suggested that it may be a reason for such diseases to worsen.
The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that the link between undiagnosed pneumonia clusters and respiratory infections is still unclear.
What happened so far?
North China has seen an increase in “influenza-like illnesses” since mid-October, the World Health Organization said.
In the year On November 21, the public disease surveillance system ProMED issued a notification about reports of “undiagnosed pneumonia.” Promedi, managed by health professionals, was launched earlier in 2019. He raised the alarm On the virus that causes covid.
“Due to the outbreak of pneumonia in China, children’s hospitals in Beijing, Liaoning and other places are overwhelmed with sick children, and schools and classrooms have been closed,” Promedi said, citing a report by FTV News.
“It is not clear when this outbreak started because it is unusual for so many children to be affected so quickly.
“This report points to the widespread occurrence of undiagnosed respiratory disease in China, as Beijing and Liaoning are 800 kilometers apart.
“The report mentions moderate exposure in schools and does not report harm to adults.”
Some parents in Shanghai on Friday said they were not overly concerned about the wave of infections.
“Flues happen all over the world,” Emily Wu said outside the children’s hospital. I hope people will not be biased because of the epidemic… but look at this from a scientific point of view.
What are the symptoms?
According to Chinese health officials, the outbreak may be linked to this. mycoplasma pneumoniaeAlso known as “walking pneumonia,” a common bacterial infection that typically affects toddlers starting in May.
Symptoms of walking pneumonia include a sore throat, fatigue, and a cough that can last for weeks or months. In severe cases, this can eventually progress to pneumonia.
A Beijing resident surnamed Wei told FTV News that infected children “don’t draw and have no symptoms.” Most pulmonary nodules occur because they have a high temperature (fever).
How contagious is the disease?
Bruce Thompson, head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, told Reuters that very preliminary data suggest there is nothing unusual.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that it could be a new variant of Covid,” he said.
“One thing to note is that it’s great that we can make sure that the monitoring processes are working.”
The World Health Organization has recommended that people in China be vaccinated, self-isolate if they feel sick, wear masks if necessary, and seek medical care as needed.
“While seeking this additional information, we recommend that people in China take steps to reduce respiratory illness,” the agency said.
What are the scientists saying?
Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who advises the World Health Organization on Vivid, said there needs to be “more data, especially diagnostic data.”
We must be careful.
“The challenge is to identify the outbreak and determine the cause,” said David Heyman of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
He suggested that there may be a background of current respiratory infections.
“I’m not going to push the panic button on the outbreak based on what we know so far, but I’m very interested to see the WHO response from China and to see the WHO assessment,” Brian McCloskey said. They advised the World Health Organization about the outbreak.
“What we’re looking at is the World Health Organization’s global health regulatory system in action,” he said, referring to the rules that govern how countries work with the World Health Organization on potential outbreaks.
Virologist Tom Peacock, from Imperial College London, said that the increasing number of infections are likely to occur under the radar because of the “rapidly rapid” availability of tools to catch the flu or coronavirus.
“(I suspect) it could be something more casual or a combination of things — say, Covid, flu, RSV. [respiratory syncytial virus] – but we hope to know more soon,” he said.