Several European countries have reported a sharp rise of cases of child pneumonia similar to those that have plagued mainland China.
Medics suspect mycoplasma pneumoniae, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to be behind the horror wave of pneumonia cases that has led to thousands of children being hospitalised in China.
Pediatric units have been swamped and many hospital wards are at capacity, with pictures of full waiting rooms being shared on social media.
Beijing Children’s Hospital is receiving up to 9378 new patients a day and has been at full capacity for two months, according to government newspaper The Global Times.
Last week the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was monitoring “undiagnosed pneumonia in children’s hospitals in Beijing, Liaoning and other places in China”.
Since mid-October, northern China has reported an increase in “influenza-like illnesses” compared with the same period in the previous three years, according to WHO.
Clusters of undiagnosed childhood pneumonia cases have also been reported in the north of the country, the WHO said in a statement on Wednesday, though it’s unclear whether these are related to the respiratory infections.
Pictures of full hospitals and people walking around in face masks and hazmat suits serve as a chilling reminder of the Covid pandemic.
There is no evidence to suggest that the cases of pneumonia are linked to a new bacteria or virus, with scientists saying that they are most likely a result of increased respiratory illnesses due to the lifting of lockdown restrictions.
Despite this, Taiwan has told children, the elderly and immunocompromised patients not to travel to mainland China as a precaution.
India, Nepal, Taiwan and Thailand have ramped up surveillance and told doctors to be on alert for pneumonia cases within their populations.
Several European countries have also reported a rise in cases of mycoplasma pneumoniae, sparking fears of a new pandemic.
Health officials in Denmark say rates of mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacterial infection resistant to some antibiotics, have reached “epidemic” levels.
Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut said rates have tripled over the past five weeks with many more cases expected over the course of winter.
It follow reports of a worrying number of children suffering from pneumonia in Sweden and the Netherlands.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that the rise in respiratory illnesses in China is a common issue that many countries were facing.
“That is a very common phenomenon in many countries, and in China that has been put under effective control,” he told reporters at the United Nations in New York.
“China’s interactions with the international community will not be affected by any factors, and we welcome more visits from friends from across the world.”
A WHO official said on Monday that the spike in illnesses in China is not as high as before the Covid-19 pandemic, and reiterated that no new or unusual pathogens had been found in the recent cases.
In India the health ministry is bracing for a similar outbreak with hospitals ordered to ensure there are enough beds, drugs, vaccines, oxygen and antibiotics to tackle a surge in respiratory illnesses.
China was one of the last countries to lift restrictions when it ended its Covid lockdown policies in January.
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Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said the rise in respiratory illness was in line with “what most countries dealt with a year or two ago”.
“This phenomenon of lockdown exit waves of respiratory infections is sometimes referred to as immunity debt,” Prof Francois Balloux, of University College London, told UK news outlet The Independent.
“Since China experienced a far longer and harsher lockdown than essentially any other country on Earth, it was anticipated that those lockdown exit waves could be substantial in China.”
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2023-11-30 15:32:25Z
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