New Delhi: the People’s Republic of China, which is still recovering from the aftereffects of the devastating Covid-19 outbreak, which ended up killing millions of people around the world, having the epicentre in Wuhan, China, are facing yet another large-scale health crisis in hand, mostly amongst the children.
The mysterious pneumonia-like outbreak has stunned China, as it has resulted in a large number of children getting affected by the outbreak.
The outbreak has been more aggressive inside the schools, as it is the most convenient place for socializing for children, whom the outbreak is affecting the most.
⚠️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
Beijing and Liaoning province have been identified as the epicentre of the outbreak, as the hospitals in these places are overwhelmed with cases, where the sick children are displaying pneumonia-like symptoms.
Early, Covid-19 like restrictions have been put in place, sending the citizens of the country and people all around the world into a state of terror.
Symptoms
The main symptoms of the latest pneumonia-like outbreak are high fever and lung inflammation.
However, the pneumonia outbreak is rather distinct from conventional pneumonia as there is no cough-related issues have been detected so far in the patients suffering from the pneumonia outbreak.
Scenes from hospital after mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China. Children most affected.
This news is giving me pre lockdown vibes 🥲🥲🥲 pic.twitter.com/pGUQ6bAFLl
— Incognito (@Incognito_qfs) November 23, 2023
According to a resident of Beijing, the children who are hospitalized after the outbreak, primarily complain of high fever and pulmonary nodules, but there is no sign of cough-related issues in any of the cases.
No causalities so far
Although the number of cases is high and increasing every day, no reports of any causalities have been reported so far by the officials.
According to some reports, the outbreak started in early October, when a large number of children were admitted into hospitals, complaining of pneumonia-like symptoms.
Reports from China say that the respiratory disease outbreak is causing hospitals to be overwhelmed and hospital staff are getting sick. Chinese authorities say it is a bacterial infection, Mycoplasma pneumonia. Other sources in China say it could be new strains of viruses. pic.twitter.com/Cc7DFI5TVi
— Dr. Lawrence Sellin (@LawrenceSellin) November 23, 2023
However, the official health alert was provided on Tuesday, by ProMed, an international disease surveillance platform, mentioning a large-scale pneumonia-like outbreak among children, but the reason behind the outbreak is still not clear.
The outbreak so far is only affecting the children mostly, as the adults seem unaffected by the outbreak.
WHO reached out
World Health Organization (WHO), has shown their concerns over the pneumonia outbreak and has reached out for the details about the outbreak to China.
Since mid-October 2023, WHO has been monitoring data from Chinese surveillance systems that have been showing an increase in respiratory illness in children in northern China.
Today, WHO held a teleconference with Chinese health authorities in which they provided requested data… pic.twitter.com/lkO22QrelQ
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) November 23, 2023
The China office of WHO has not considered the situation a worldwide problem as according to them, the check-up was only a routine check-up as they only wanted to know about the trends of some known pathogens like influenza, RSV, mycoplasma pneumonia and SARS-CoV-2.
