Mysterious pneumonia rips through China’s schools with ‘many, many in hospital’ – in eerie echo of Covid’s early days

A mysterious pneumonia is reportedly sweeping through schools in China.

Hospitals in Beijing and 800 kilometers northeast of Liaoning are among those “overwhelmed by sick children,” while school classes were “on the verge of being suspended,” according to local news reports.

The children are showing unusual symptoms, including inflammation in the lungs and high fever, but no cough or other symptoms usually associated with flu, RSV and other respiratory illnesses.

The warning was issued late Tuesday via ProMed – a large, publicly available global surveillance system that monitors infectious diseases.

It was a ProMed report from December 2019 that brought a mysterious virus, later named Covid, to the attention of many doctors and scientists, including World Health Organization officials.

Hospitals in Beijing and almost 800 kilometers northeast in Liaoning

The source for the warning was a report from Taiwanese news channel FTV News, which added that “parents questioned whether authorities were covering up the epidemic.”

China was roundly criticized for covering up the original SARS epidemic of 2003 and the Covid pandemic in late 2019 – both new viruses that cause pneumonia.

But the new outbreak could be linked to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, also known as walking pneumonia, which is reportedly on the rise in China as the country enters its first winter without strict Covid lockdowns.

The US and Britain also saw spikes in diseases like RSV and flu after pandemic rules were lifted.

FTV News reported that the Beijing Children’s Hospital was still overcrowded in the early morning on Wednesday.

“The situation in Liaoning province is also grim,” FTV News said.

The lobby of Dalian Children’s Hospital is reportedly full of sick children receiving intravenous drips.

There are also long queues of patients at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and the Central Hospital.

An employee of Dalian Central Hospital said, “Patients have to wait in line for two hours, and we are all in the emergency department and there are no general outpatient clinics.”

Some school classes have been canceled completely. Not only are all students sick, teachers are also infected with pneumonia.

Mr. Wei, a Beijing resident, said FTV News: ‘Many, many are in hospital. They do not cough and have no symptoms. They just have a high fever (fever) and many develop lung nodules.”

A ProMed editorial note said: ‘This report suggests a widespread outbreak of an undiagnosed respiratory disease… It is not at all clear when this outbreak began, as it would be unusual for so many children to be affected so quickly.

‘The report does not say that any adults were affected, which suggests that there is some exposure in the schools.

‘ProMed awaits more definitive information on the etiology and extent of this in relation to diseases in China.’

Pneumonia is an infection that affects either lung and can be fatal. The air sacs in the lungs can fill with fluid or pus.

In general, pneumonia is not contagious, but the respiratory viruses and bacteria that lead to it are.

Walking pneumonia, which usually affects younger children, causes sore throat, fatigue and coughing that can last for months.

In severe cases, the disease can become pneumonia.

Local media reported last month that hospitals across China were experiencing skyrocketing infections.

Zhou Huixia, director of the pediatric medical center of the Seventh Medical Center of China’s PLA General Hospital, told China Daily: ‘It is the first wave of mycoplasma pneumoniae infections since most Covid-19 containment measures were lifted early this year. .

‘The wave has proven particularly severe since the national holiday in early October. Compared to previous years, we found more patients with mixed infections, drug resistance and lobar pneumonia.’

Lobar pneumonia affects one or more parts (lobes) of the lungs.

Infections are expected to peak in November, but concerns about antibiotic resistance are growing.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is becoming increasingly resistant to macrolides, a class of drugs commonly used to treat pneumonia.