2023-11-22 20:39:47
A health alarm from China 4 years after the Covid pandemic. A health emergency has been triggered in many Chinese cities due to a mysterious pneumonia that is affecting children. The first ‘alert’ came from ProMed, a publicly accessible surveillance system that monitors epidemics of human and animal diseases around the world, which issued a notification talking about “undiagnosed pneumonia” in children, with high fever and traces in the lungs, but no cough.
At the end of 2019, it was ProMed itself that raised the first alarm about an unknown respiratory virus, later renamed Sars-CoV-2. The Asian media mainly talk about Beijing and Liaoning as the metropolises most affected by this pneumonia epidemic which would have high fever and lung nodules as symptoms. Hospitals would be clogged with cases and there would be many classes in schools decimated by hospitalized children.
Eric Feigl-Ding, a well-known epidemiologist who followed the pandemic on ‘X’, raised the alarm with several posts and videos describing the situation. A first hypothesis – according to the US epidemiologist – is that these cases are attributable to “Mycoplasma pneumoniae”, a bacterium responsible for pathologies that mainly affect the respiratory system. It could be “‘walking pneumonia’, which according to some sources is on the rise in China”, writes Feigl-Ding who published photos of children with masks and IV drips, hospitalized and doing their homework for school. “What a world,” is the scientist’s final comment.
If this mysterious pneumonia in children is once again putting a strain on the Chinese healthcare system, some experts point out that it could be the consequence of the lifting of post-pandemic restrictions in the Asian giant. In fact, the same happened in Europe and the USA last winter, with an epidemic of respiratory syncytial virus cases in children and a heavier 2022-2023 flu season. Symptoms of ‘walking pneumonia’ – which generally affects young children – include sore throat, fatigue and a persistent cough that can last for weeks or months. In more serious cases it can eventually degenerate into pneumonia.
“This is the first wave of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections since most anti-Covid containment measures were lifted earlier this year,” explained Zhou Huixia, director of the Children’s Medical Center of the Seventh Medical Center of the Chinese Pla General Hospital, in an interview with ‘China Daily’.
“The wave appeared particularly aggressive after the National Day holiday at the beginning of October – he added – Compared to previous years we found more patients with mixed infections, drug resistance and lobar pneumonia”.
#alarm #covid