Spike in pneumonia cases in China, WHO calls for details

Beijing/Geneva, November 23

The WHO on Thursday said it had made an official request to China for detailed information on a spike in respiratory illnesses after the Chinese health authorities reported multiple infectious respiratory diseases with surging cases of mycoplasma pneumonia and influenza flu among children.

Earlier this month, Chinese experts also sounded an alert about the relapse of Covid infections during the current winter season and asked elderly and vulnerable populations to get vaccinated.

Don’t panic: scientists

• Scientists urged caution over fears of another pandemic. Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist, said, “We really need more information, particularly diagnostic information.”
• Brian McCloskey, who had advised WHO on the pandemic, said, “I am not going to push the panic button.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) in a statement issued in Geneva said it had requested China to provide additional epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results from reports of clusters of pneumonia in children through the International Health Regulations mechanism.

The WHO statement calling on information from China was seen as an attempt to secure official information in time unlike in 2019 when the global health body came under strong criticism for the delay in getting timely reports from Beijing on the breakout of the coronavirus, which later spiralled into a massive pandemic causing millions of deaths all over the world.

Chinese health experts said mycoplasma pneumoniae — a pathogen that commonly causes sore throat, fatigue, fever and a lingering cough that can last for months in children aged five and above — has drawn heightened attention this winter as hospitals nationwide have seen young patients swarming there to seek treatment.

Paediatrics expert Wei Tianli at the Beijing Friendship Hospital was quoted by the city’s health authorities as saying that while mycoplasma pneumoniae infections surged every three to five years, the symptoms had become more serious this time.

Wang Dayan, director of the China National Influenza Centre administered by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said that flu activities across the nation had been rising, with H3N2 the dominant strain.

Meanwhile, leading scientists urged caution over fears of another pandemic. “We have to be careful,” said Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who advised the WHO on Covid. “We really need more information, particularly diagnostic information,” he said.

Brian McCloskey, a public health expert who also advised WHO on the pandemic, said, “I am not going to push the pandemic panic button on the basis of what we know so far, but I will be very keen to see the response to WHO from China and see the WHO’s assessment following that.” — Agencies