China’s Raging Pneumonia Outbreak – Is it COVID All Over Again; WHO Presses China for Data on Wave of Undiagnosed Pneumonia Cases; China Provides Data to WHO on Wave of Pneumonia Cases Among Children, and other C-Virus related stories

By admin On Nov 25, 2023

China’s Raging Pneumonia Outbreak – Is it COVID All Over Again?

Hospitals in parts of China are overloaded with patients, many of them children, who are suffering from a surging pneumonia epidemic that has prompted comparisons to COVID-19, which was first identified in China before it went on to kill some seven million people around the world.

Below are answers to some questions about the latest epidemic in China:

What disease is causing it?

It had initially been described as a mystery illness, amplifying worries that it could be a new virus as COVID-19 was. But the World Health Organisation said this week, after it had appealed to the Chinese authorities for information, that it had been informed that there had been a rise in outpatient consultations and hospital admissions of children as a result of mycoplasma pneumonia. It said this rise had happened since May—even though the reports of overloaded hospitals have only just emerged.

It also said that China had reported increases in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenovirus and influenza since October. The Chinese authorities told the WHO that there had been no unusual or novel pathogens detected—at least not yet. —>READ MORE HERE

WSJ: WHO Presses China for Data on Wave of Undiagnosed Pneumonia Cases:

Rare public statement by the global health agency points to persistence of concerns over Beijing’s transparency

The World Health Organization said it has asked China to provide more information on an outbreak of pneumonia among children in northern parts of the country, an unusual public disclosure that revives questions about Beijing’s transparency on the spread of infectious diseases.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the WHO cited reports about “clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China,” which prompted the United Nations agency to ask Beijing for “additional epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results” related to the infections.

China’s health authorities and state media have in recent weeks reported a surge in cases of bacterial pneumonia and other influenza-like diseases, particularly among children. Chinese officials say the volume of such illnesses appeared higher than levels seen in the past three years, which they attributed, in part, to the lifting of strict Covid controls that had helped contain such respiratory ailments.

The WHO said it issued an official information request to China the day after reports about the undiagnosed pneumonia clusters emerged on Tuesday from the media and a global infectious-diseases reporting system known as ProMED. The agency said it wasn’t clear whether these reports were “associated with the overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities, or separate events.”

Global health officials say the WHO routinely issues information requests to governments as part of its work assessing public-health risks, but it is relatively rare for the agency to publicly disclose those requests.

The WHO’s statement likely reflects concerns about Beijing’s patchy record in sharing public-health data during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the health officials.

“There’s no doubt that the WHO has been concerned with transparency and data communication” with regard to China, said one of the officials, who is based in Beijing and monitors public-health issues in China. “It also puts some pressure on the country that has been requested to cooperate.”

China’s National Health Commission didn’t immediately respond to queries. In an interview published Thursday by the official Xinhua News Agency, the commission acknowledged that many children’s hospitals have been swamped by patients recently, and offered assurances that authorities are taking steps to improve access to treatment.

“Large hospitals are crowded, have long waiting times, and there’s a high risk of cross-infection,” the commission said in the interview, and recommended that children with mild symptoms first seek help at primary healthcare facilities.