The wave of respiratory diseases in Chinawhat he pressed the World Health Organization (WHO) ask for clarification, It’s the flu and other known pathogens and not a new virus. It is reported the National Health Commissionin a briefing on Sunday, reporting that recent “clusters of respiratory infections are due to a Overlap of common viruses such as influenza, rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, adenovirus and bacteria such as Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which are often responsible for respiratory tract infections.
It was the epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding to raise the alarm with various posts and videos describing the situation and initially hypothesize that the cases are due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a microorganism responsible for pathologies that mainly affect the respiratory tract.
Warning from ProMed
The first warning came from ProMed, International Society for Infectious Diseases (Isid) Emerging Disease Surveillance Systemwhich issued a notice on Nov. 22 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 first raised the alarm about an unknown respiratory virus, later renamed Sars-CoV-2. However, the Chinese National Health Commission had already spoken of an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases in mid-November.
Symptoms: Fever but no cough
The symptoms reported by ProMED are fever, absence of cough, and the presence of lung nodules and limited areas of denser lung tissue that can be seen with an X-ray. Usually, these fairly common and generally benign formations are typical of a bacterial and not viral infection, although they can also occur during a bacterial infection that follows a viral episode such as the flu.
The lifting of restrictions after the pandemic
Some experts have speculated about the connection between the epidemic and the lifting of post-pandemic restrictions in the People’s Republic of China. Something similar actually happened last winter in Europe and the United States, where there was an epidemic of respiratory syncytial virus cases in children. The wave was particularly aggressive after the national holiday at the beginning of October.
Intervention strategies
The commission called on local authorities to open up Other clinics for fever treatment it is at Promoting vaccinations for children and the elderly While The country is battling a wave of respiratory illnesses in its first full winter since Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. “Efforts should be made to increase the opening of clinics and treatment areas, extend service hours and increase the supply of medicines,” spokesman Mi Feng said, advising the use of masks and urging local authorities to focus on the Focus on preventing the spread of disease in crowded places such as schools and nursing homes.
The WHO last week called on Chinese authorities to provide information about the potentially worrying increase in respiratory illnesses and pneumonia outbreaks in children, as noted in several media reports and a global infectious disease surveillance service. The U.N. agency then reported last Thursday that Beijing officials provided the requested data during a conference call that showed the increase in hospitalizations of children from October for diseases such as bacterial infections, RSV, influenza and cold viruses. According to the assurances given, the peak number of patients did not lead to an overload of the country’s hospitals.
Both the Chinese authorities and the WHO are accused of a lack of transparency in the initial communication about the Covid-19 pandemic, which began in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan.