Mysterious pneumonia in China leaves hundreds of children sick; WHO seeks more information

Reports indicate that Chinese hospitals are currently grappling with a high number of ailing children showing respiratory illness symptoms.

The WHO disclosed that representatives from China's National Health Commission held a press briefing on November 12, admitting a rise in respiratory diseases in the nation.

The UN health organisation attributed the surge to the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions.

ProMed, a publicly accessible surveillance system that monitors global infectious disease outbreaks, has issued an alert regarding cases of "undiagnosed pneumonia" in children.

It is noteworthy that ProMed had previously sounded the alarm about SARs-CoV-2 in December 2019, well before the pandemic unfolded globally.

According to a report from Taiwanese FTV News, hospitals in both Beijing and Liaoning are grappling with a surge in cases of pneumonia among children.

Given the considerable distance of 800km between Beijing and Liaoning, the current situation of mysterious pneumonia is not being interpreted as a localised outbreak.

Limited information is available about the outbreak; individuals cited by FTV have noted that the affected children do not exhibit symptoms like coughing. Instead, they have high temperatures and pulmonary nodules.

Reports said that teachers have also contracted the illness, primarily because the outbreaks have been reported in schools.

As a result, certain educational institutions have been temporarily closed. The exact date when the outbreak started remains unknown at this time.

Epidemiologist Eric-Feigl-Dingh shared videos from hospitals and messages from locals in a long thread on X and analysed the situation.