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Reports of overcrowding in China’s children’s hospitals have raised concerns about a rise in respiratory illnesses affecting children.
By Vivian Wang and Siyi Zhao
The World Health Organization has officially asked China to provide detailed data on a recent surge in respiratory illnesses, bringing to light unconfirmed media reports of undiagnosed pneumonia in children.
China has been reporting a rise in respiratory illnesses for months. Chinese media described long queues at children’s hospitals, and doctors said this year’s wave appeared to be more severe than those of previous years.
The Chinese government has attributed those illnesses to known pathogens such as influenza, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus pandemic, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterium that causes mild illness in children.
But some media outlets and social networks have described crowds of young people with pneumonia in hospitals, without specifying the precise cause of the illness. On Wednesday, the WHO asked China for more information.
“It is unclear whether those infections are related to the overall accumulation of respiratory infections in the past reported by Chinese authorities, or to separate events,” the WHO, a U. N. agency, said Thursday.
During the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020, China’s infectious disease surveillance and reporting attracted global scrutiny and criticism. On both occasions, the government concealed the first cases and obstructed requests from health officials abroad, adding that the WHO, for more information. data and patient data.
Several experts said in interviews that the increase in cases is not a cause for concern, noting that more evidence may shed light on the reasons for those likely undiagnosed cases. But they said many other people around the world were more attentive to the reports coming in. outside of China.
“There are indeed transparency considerations on the part of China,” said Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “Given the history of what happened with Covid, I think the WHO. take the initiative, which is a smart thing to do, and ask China for data now. “
The WHO said it had asked for laboratory results on reported cases in children, as well as more important points about the existing burden on fitness systems. The company said it is also in contact with doctors and scientists through its networks in China.
One of the reports, published through a Taiwanese media outlet, was also shared on ProMED, a disease tracking site run by the International Society for Infectious Diseases, which highlighted some of the early reports on the 2003 SARS virus and SARS-CoV-2.
This time, the Chinese government has publicly stated its views on unknown pathogens and publicly responded to the WHO’s statements. In national media, they called for calm in the face of emerging respiratory diseases, saying the buildup is partly due to the lifting of three years of strict restrictions imposed in China on coronaviruses.
The restrictions have kept many other infectious diseases circulating in winter at bay, making the existing surge more dramatic, when in fact it is normal, Tong Zhaohui, director of the Beijing Institute of Respiratory Diseases, told a news conference in Beijing. through China’s National Health Commission on Nov. 13.
The National Health Commission has not published comprehensive statistics on the evolution of diseases. But at a youth hospital in Anhui province, doctors performed 67 bronchoscopies in one day, compared with 10 overall, according to a local government report. The eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou reported that outpatient pediatric hospital visits had tripled from last year, when Covid restrictions were still in place. According to the article, between 30 and 40 percent of the children had been diagnosed with Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
The emergence of undiagnosed cases of pneumonia is not in itself a sign of a new pathogen, said Professor MacIntyre of the University of New South Wales. Pneumonia-like symptoms are quite common, and diagnosing their causes depends on available surveillance and testing systems. in his home country, he said.
In other countries, infectious diseases other than coronavirus have also surged after the government lifted pandemic restrictions. It’s conceivable that the same thing could happen in China, especially since there’s evidence that past infection with the coronavirus makes other people more vulnerable to other diseases. Chinese doctors said patients in this series appear to have mixed or drug-resistant infections, which may simply make symptoms worse.
The key, Professor MacIntyre said, is to screen young people in poor health in China and check or rule out known causes.
“If diagnostic tests come back negative repeatedly, it would be the presence of a new pathogen,” he said.
Concern appears to be greatest among many parents in China, who are facing overcrowded hospitals even as experts urge them to seek treatment at smaller clinics or stay home for milder cases. Photos shared with The New York Times from a Beijing hospital showed a boy lying with a woman on the floor and long lines in a lobby.
Wu Si, the mother of a three-year-old boy, said she waited more than 8 hours when she took him to Beijing Children’s Hospital on Nov. 2 after he developed a mild fever and cough. She was later diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia. .
“It was crazy,” Ms. Wu said of the wait. He said he wanted to know if the increase was due to the fact that people’s immunity had been weakened by the coronavirus pandemic. “If this happens every year, parents I couldn’t possibly take care of it. “
Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, said the Chinese government is temporarily sharing more knowledge to back up its claim that the existing wave was no worse than pre-pandemic years.
“In our judgment, it’s probably not very serious, everything is predictable,” Professor Jin said of the rise in disease cases, pointing to phenomena elsewhere.
But “other people are more sensitive and overreact,” he said. “The only thing you can do is tell others the truth. “
Joy Dong contributed reporting.
Vivian Wang is a China correspondent founded in Beijing, where she writes about how the country’s global rise and ambitions shape the lives of its residents. Learn more about Vivian Wang
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