Bringing back memories of the Covid-19 pandemic, four years after it first emerged in the country, China is dealing with a surge in respiratory illnesses being likened to a kind of pneumonia. Affecting mostly children, it is being associated with the onset of winter and ongoing influenza.
India issued a health advisory for all states and union territories on Sunday, asking them to immediately review public health preparedness amid rising cases in northern China. The ministry of health and family welfare said it has decided to proactively review preparatory measures against respiratory illnesses as a matter of extreme caution.
The increase in cases of respiratory illness in China was flagged by WHO and attributed to usual causes such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumonia and SARS-CoV-2. China lifted Covid restrictions last December. The global health body has sought additional information from the Chinese authorities, and it has been assessed that there is no cause for alarm at the moment. Experts said there is little to suggest the cases were caused by a new virus.
Here is what we know so far:
What and where?
On November 13, China’s National Health Commission reported a surge of respiratory illnesses, mostly in children. Authorities have attributed the rising cases to the end of Covid restrictions, the arrival of the cold season, and the circulation of known pathogens including influenza, mycoplasma pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid.
On November 20, the public disease surveillance system ProMED – which once issued an early warning about mysterious pneumonia cases that turned out to be Covid – reported that some Chinese hospitals were “overwhelmed with sick children” due to a pneumonia outbreak. This was said to be mainly in the capital Beijing, but also in the northeastern Liaoning province and other areas in China.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms include fever, lung inflammation without a cough, and pulmonary nodules – lumps on lungs that are usually the result of a past infection. No deaths have been reported. Some children in Beijing have mycoplasma pneumonia, which is a common cause of pneumonia in children that is readily treated with antibiotics.
What do China and WHO say?
While social media users have dubbed this “a new virus coming from China,” or a “new Covid”, the WHO on November 22 requested more information from China about children suffering from “undiagnosed pneumonia”.
(With inputs from agencies)