The World Health Organisation has asked China for more data on a mysterious “undiagnosed pneumonia” illness reportedly spreading amongst children in the north of the country.
An alert was issued to scientists on Wednesday through ProMed – a large surveillance database which monitors disease outbreaks– warning of an epidemic of “undiagnosed pneumonia” in children.
Chinese health authorities have attributed a wave of respiratory illnesses this winter to low immunity among the population caused by Covid lockdown measures.
The ProMed Alert followed a report by Taiwanese news website FTV News which said that children were presenting to hospitals in Beijing and Liaoning – 500 miles northeast – with symptoms including a high fever and inflammation of the lungs, but no cough.
Local media reported that the lobby of Dalian Children’s Hospital in Liaoning province was also “full of sick children” receiving intravenous drips.
In a statement, the WHO urged China to share more information on the “clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children”.
The WHO said it was not clear if these were associated with an overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities or separate events.
The health agency said it had asked for additional epidemiologic and clinical information as well as laboratory results from the reported outbreaks among children, through the International Health Regulations mechanism.
The Covid-19 outbreak was initially flagged up to global scientists in late December 2019 via a ProMed alert in late December, which had similarly warned of a respiratory illness sweeping through the city of Wuhan.
Both China and the WHO faced criticism over the transparency of reporting on the earliest Covid-19 cases that emerged in the central city of Wuhan in December 2019.
The WHO’s China branch said that it was “routine” to request information on increases in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children from member states.
At a press conference last week, China’s National Health Commission said there had been a rise in several respiratory diseases including flu, Covid and mycoplasma pneumoniae, also known as “walking pneumonia”.
Symptoms include sore throat, fatigue and a slowly worsening cough that can last for weeks or months.
Footage posted on social media in recent days in cities such as Xian have shown hospitals crowded with parents and children awaiting checks.
Some social media users have posted photos of children doing homework while receiving intravenous drips in hospital.
The WHO urged the Chinese public to follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness, such as vaccination, keeping distance from sick people and staying at home when ill.
