The Cause of the China Pneumonia Epidemic: How Serious Is the Increase in Respiratory Illnesses in China?

China has been experiencing a respiratory sickness wave for the last several weeks, with youngsters being especially affected.

Many are concerned since China hasn’t seen an increase in respiratory diseases like this before 2019, despite Chinese officials attributing the illnesses to the arrival of winter and the relaxation of Covid-19 limits. That peak proved to be the Covid-19 outbreak, which sent the globe into a pandemic never seen before and destroyed healthcare systems everywhere.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has inquired with Chinese authorities for information after becoming aware of the circumstances in that country. Although the Chinese government has provided data to the WHO, concerns will inevitably persist given China’s questionable history of data sharing, as seen by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Here, we learn the cause of the present epidemic, the unanswered issues, and the reasons for the concerns expressed about China.

Respiratory infections are overwhelmed in Chinese hospitals
Initially called “mysterious pneumonia,” a wave of respiratory ailments has swept over eastern and northern parts of China. Beijing Children’s institution’s internal medicine department sees 7,000 patients a day, more than the institution can accommodate, according to reports from Chinese official media.

Children have been especially severely affected by the infections; according to reports, hospitals are overworked. Mid-October, during the busiest travel season in the nation, saw the first reports of the sickness spike.

According to a father of a 7-year-old, they had to wait two or three hours in Beijing simply to see the doctor because of the rush.

“Normally we only have to wait 30 minutes to see the doctor, but today it took us two or three hours.” This is the case for four or five households that I know. “I am extremely concerned that the virus will continue to spread,” Emma Wang told NBC News.

NBC said that hospitals around China, including Beijing, were “overwhelmed with sick children” as a result of the current epidemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) became aware of the issue and contacted Chinese officials for further information after media reports and a warning from the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID)’s Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) highlighted this surge. ProMED claimed in its notice that there seems to be “undiagnosed respiratory illness in several areas in China” since two locations with similar rises were hundreds of kilometers apart: Beijing and Liaoning. This indicates that the epidemic is quite widespread and not localized.

Since so many children would need to become sick so soon, it is really unclear when this pandemic began. ProMED said in their notice that “the report does not indicate that any adults were impacted, indicating some exposure at the schools.”

China identifies reasons of surge in RSV, flu, and mycoplasma pneumonia cases.
Chinese officials earlier this month blamed the spike in respiratory diseases on seasonal illnesses brought on by the country’s arrival of winter and the relaxation of Covid-19 limits. Additionally, it included a list of circulating viruses that are more likely to harm kids than adults.

China provided the information that the WHO requested on November 22 and released the next day. The Chinese officials reiterated that all diseases were caused by recognized bacteria and viruses, and that there was no novel pathogen in circulation.

According to WHO, Chinese officials confirmed the surge and linked it to the end of the Covid-19 limitations and the start of the cold season.

The WHO said that the Chinese claimed that well-known pathogens such mycoplasma pneumoniae, influenza (flu), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 illness, were to blame for the infections. The Chinese said that the increase among children might be explained by the fact that RSV and mycoplasma pneumonia are known to afflict children more often than adults.

The Chinese authorities said that since May, the number of cases of mycoplasma pneumonia has increased, as have instances of RSV, adenovirus, and influenza virus since October.

According to WHO, Chinese authorities stated that although there were reports of thousands of extra patients visiting hospitals every day, the surge did not add to the burden on the healthcare system. “Some of these increases are earlier in the season than historically experienced, but not unexpected given the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, as similarly experienced in other countries,” the WHO quoted Chinese authorities as saying.

Since that this is the first flu season after the lifting of limitations in China, several experts have also speculated that this may well be the case. Since this was the first winter after lockdown limits were relaxed, Francois Balloux of University College London told the Associated Press that China was likely witnessing a major wave of childhood illnesses, which likely weakened children’s antibodies to common viruses.

Unanswered queries and worries
China says that the increase is due to the weather and the removal of COVID-19 limitations, but the pattern is not consistent with what is happening globally.

Note 4: According to a University of New South Wales report published in The Conversation, respiratory infections have declined globally this year while rising in China. According to research, there has been a rise in respiratory infections in China this year compared to the same period last year. They cite data on the transmission of influenza A and B, SARS-CoV-2, RSV, pertussis (whooping cough), adenovirus, and Mycoplasma. On the other hand, the global comparison indicates a decline from the previous year, indicating that China is certainly facing a higher than anticipated rate of respiratory illnesses.

The researchers do point out, however, that no unidentified reason has surfaced to yet, and Chinese officials have noted causes. But they also pointed out that human instances of avian flu had surfaced this year.

“The virus that poses the greatest threat to a global health emergency is avian influenza, as it has the ability to evolve and become highly contagious in humans.” In the past, China was the epicenter of the avian flu pandemic; however, the H5N1 virus is now spreading to the Americas, Europe, and Africa. However, China has documented several human cases of several bird flu viruses this year, including H3N8, H5N1, H5N6, and H9N2. The researchers write, “There is a higher chance of mutations and mixing of bird and human influenza genetic material with large and ongoing outbreaks in birds and mammals, which could lead to a new pandemic influenza virus.”

In addition, there is a contradiction in the Chinese authorities’ statement that the increase has been there since May, even if they credit the start of winter for some of it.

A specialist was cited in the state-run China Daily as stating that patients were exhibiting mixed infections, medication resistance, and lobar pneumonia. Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding has also brought up the potential that drug-resistant bacteria may be at work in this situation on Twitter.

Concerns exist about the evidence coming from China as well, since that nation’s officials have a history of concealing the scope of illnesses and the kind of pathogens at play. Most remarkably, even as they began working on a vaccine for their own citizens, the Chinese government withheld the genome of the novel coronavirus from the international community. Biologist Alina Chan and science writer Matt Ridley report in their investigative book VIRAL: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19 that although the first genome was presumably discovered by December 27, 2019, British scientist Edward C. Holmes did not reveal it until January 11, following a private communication with him. In the meanwhile, the Chinese had begun developing the vaccine on January 4.

China has been under fire for the Covid-19 pandemic for allegedly hiding the epidemic’s beginnings and obstructing impartial inquiries into the Wuhan outbreak. Given this previous past, there is skepticism in certain areas about the information originating from China on the present epidemic.