‘Disturbingly similar’ message out of China over mystery illness overwhelming hospitals
A new respiratory illness has hospitals in China overwhelmed and has prompted the World Health Organization to request more information from the government about the outbreak.
Video transcript
- Reports of a mysterious new illness surging in China are disturbingly similar to the ones that came out of Wuhan in late 2019. Here's what you need to know. A new respiratory illness has hospitals in China overwhelmed and has prompted the World Health Organization to request more information from the government about the outbreak.
Scientists around the world say the situation warrants close monitoring, but urge against an overreaction before more information is gathered. Chinese officials insist they have not detected any unusual or novel diseases in the country. China attributes the increase in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children to the lifting of pandemic restrictions and circulation of known pathogens, such as influenza, and the virus that causes COVID.
International concerns were first sparked last week when monitoring service ProMED sent an alert that echoed their first notice on what would eventually become COVID-19. The alert sent on December 30, 2019 said, "Undiagnosed pneumonia-- China, Hubei." And the alert sent on November 21, 2023 read, "Undiagnosed pneumonia-- China. Beijing, Liaoning."
Data provided to WHO by Chinese health officials revealed an increase in hospital admissions since October. Some hospitals are so overwhelmed that parents are being told to take children with less severe symptoms to other facilities. Local media are reporting some school closures and teachers being infected.
A Beijing citizen revealed to ProMED many, many are hospitalized. They don't cough and have no symptoms. They just have a high temperature and many develop pulmonary nodules.
So should you be worried? Epidemiologist Professor Adrian Esterman told Yahoo News Australia, while the reports are disturbingly similar to the ones that came out of Wuhan in 2019, it's a bit too early to draw any conclusions. He said, until we have more information from China and WHO, it's difficult to know whether this will be a risk to other countries like Australia.
Professor Esterman said this is the first winter since China removed COVID public health measures, which might explain some of the increased incidence. While the WHO always requests information from countries when undiagnosed or unknown diseases are reported, it does not always put out a press release, making the recent alerts significant. However, public health expert Brian McCloskey said he's not going to push the pandemic panic button on the basis of what we know so far.
