A strange pneumonia is said to be spreading in the schools of China, reported DailyMail.
Reports from local news suggest that hospitals in Beijing and Liaoning, located 500 miles northeast, are dealing with an influx of sick children. Some schools are even considering suspending classes due to the situation.
Mystery pneumonia spreads in schools in China with children showing symptoms like lung inflammation, high fever
The children affected are showing unusual symptoms, including lung inflammation and a high fever. Notably, there is no cough or other typical symptoms associated with flu, RSV, and other respiratory illnesses.
Late on Tuesday, a warning was issued through ProMed, a widely accessible global surveillance system for monitoring infectious diseases. Back in December 2019, a ProMed notification played a crucial role in bringing a mysterious virus, eventually named Covid, to the attention of numerous doctors, scientists, and officials at the World Health Organization.
Watching this one closely…
Link: https://t.co/gxRuLe4y50 pic.twitter.com/WSm4W2wV1q
— Isaac Bogoch (@BogochIsaac) November 22, 2023
The alert originated from a report by the Taiwanese outlet FTV News. The report highlighted that some parents were questioning whether the authorities were trying to conceal the epidemic. According to FTV News, Beijing Children’s Hospital remained overcrowded into the early morning on Wednesday.
‘The situation in Liaoning Province is also grim,’ according to FTV News. The lobby of Dalian Children’s Hospital is said to be crowded with sick children receiving intravenous drips. Additionally, there are long lines of patients at both the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and the Central Hospital.
“Patients have to wait in line for two hours, and we are all in the emergency department and there are no general outpatient clinics,” a staff member at Dalian Central Hospital told the outlet.
⚠️UNDIAGNOSED PNEUMONIA OUTBREAK—An emerging large outbreak of pneumonia in China, with pediatric hospitals in Beijing, Liaoning overwhelmed with sick children, & many schools suspended. Beijing Children's Hospital overflowing. 🧵on what we know so far:pic.twitter.com/hmgsQO4NEZ
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 22, 2023
China’s history of virus cover-ups and a potential link to mycoplasma
China faced criticism in the past for covering up the original SARS epidemic in 2003 and the COVID pandemic in late 2019, both of which involved novel viruses causing pneumonia.
The current outbreak might be linked to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, also known as walking pneumonia. This condition is reportedly on the rise in China as the country experiences its first winter without strict Covid lockdowns.
Similar patterns have been observed in the US and the UK, where there were increases in diseases like RSV and flu after pandemic rules were lifted.
