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Published Date: 2023-11-25 04:51:02 UTC
Subject: PRO/EDR> Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (04): (BJ, LN) children, reported epidemic
Archive Number: 20231125.8713323
UNDIAGNOSED PNEUMONIA - CHINA (04): (BEIJING, LIAONING) CHILDREN, REPORTED EPIDEMIC
***********************************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
[1]
Date: Thu 23 Nov 2023 09:08 EST
Source: BBC [edited]
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-67505218
China has reported no "unusual or novel pathogens" in clusters of child pneumonia cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. Beijing has attributed a rise in flu-like illnesses to the lifting of COVID-19 curbs, said the WHO, which had requested for more data on the cases. Still it urged residents in China to take precautions, like getting vaccinated and wearing masks. Local media had in recent days reported hospitals being overwhelmed.
In a statement on Wednesday [22 Nov 2023], the WHO said it requested China for more information on reports in the media and from ProMED -- a global outbreak surveillance system -- of "clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China." Pneumonia is a general medical term used to describe an infection and inflammation of the lungs. It can be caused by many different viruses, bacteria or fungi.
After the WHO's request, state-run Xinhua news agency published an article which quoted officials of China's National Health Commission (NHC) as saying they were paying close attention to the diagnosis and care of children with respiratory illnesses.
Later on Thursday [23 Nov 2023], the WHO said in a statement that China has not detected any "unusual or novel pathogens," and that the increase in respiratory illnesses spreading in the north of the country was due to "multiple known pathogens." Since October 2023, northern China has reported an "increase in influenza-like illness" compared to the same period over the past 3 years, the WHO said. "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 statement said.
The WHO said it is "closely monitoring the situation and is in close contact with national authorities in China". While mentions of China and a wave of infection can get people jittery as it brings memories of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is good practice for the WHO to ask for clarity.
It is also not unusual for the WHO to ask countries for more information about a cluster of illnesses. They do so almost every day. A specialist WHO team combs through thousands of media reports and internal surveillance information on circulating diseases from countries on a daily basis. Experts then decide whether they need more information, in case it could have the potential to become a public health emergency of international concern. But it is unusual to announce the request for more information publicly. In general, this has previously been done through private channels between the WHO and health officials in a country.
The UN agency is no doubt mindful that people might be more jumpy about viruses reported in China with the not so distant memory of COVID-19. The WHO is also trying to be more transparent in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The UK's health security agency (UKHSA) said it was closely monitoring the situation.
Last week, the Chinese NHC said there had been a rise in several respiratory diseases across the country: in particular influenza, COVID-19, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ -- a common bacterial infection affecting younger children -- and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Officials attributed the rise to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. Other countries, including the UK and the US, saw similar surges in flu-like illnesses once pandemic restrictions were lifted.
"China is likely experiencing a major wave of childhood respiratory infections now as this is the first winter after their lengthy lockdown, which must have drastically reduced the circulation of respiratory bugs, and hence decreased immunity to endemic bugs," said Prof Francois Balloux of the University College of London Genetics Institute. Prof Paul Hunter, of the University of East Anglia (UEA), said at present there was too little information to make a definitive diagnosis of what was causing the infections.
He added: "Overall, this does not sound to me like an epidemic due to a novel [new] virus. If it was, I would expect to see many more infections in adults. The few infections reported in adults suggest existing immunity from a prior exposure."
[Byline: Phelan Chatterjee, Fergus Walsh, and Tulip Mazumdar]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED
******
[2]
Date: Thu 23 Nov 2023 08:56 EST
Source: Reuters [edited]
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/dont-press-pandemic-panic-button-scientists-caution-china-pneumonia-report-2023-11-23/
Leading scientists urged caution over fears of another pandemic on Thursday [23 Nov 2023], after the WHO requested more information from China on a rise of respiratory illnesses and pneumonia clusters among children. "We have to be careful," said Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who advised the WHO on COVID-19. "We really need more information, particularly diagnostic information."
Concerns were first sparked internationally by an alert published on Tuesday [21 Nov 2023], by the monitoring service ProMED, part of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. It called for more information about "Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (Beijing, Liaoning)." The standard wording of the alert echoed the first-ever notice about what would become COVID-19, sent on 30 Dec 2019: "Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (Hubei)."
Scientists said the similarity of the two alerts had stirred as yet unfounded worries the surge may be caused by another emerging pathogen that could spark a pandemic. They said based on the information so far, it was more likely to be a rise in other common respiratory infections like flu, as was seen in many parts of the world after COVID lockdowns were lifted. It could also signal a resurgence of COVID itself.
The WHO always requests information from countries when undiagnosed or unknown diseases are reported, which happens fairly regularly. However, it does not always put out a press release about doing so, as it did on Wednesday [22 Nov 2023].
Brian McCloskey, a public health expert who also advised WHO on the pandemic, said: "What we are seeing is WHO's International Health Regulations system in action," referring to the rules governing how countries work with WHO on potential outbreaks. "I am not going to push the pandemic panic button on the basis of what we know so far, but I will be very keen to see the response to WHO from China and see the WHO's assessment following that," he said.
Both the WHO and China have faced questions over transparency during the early days of COVID. WHO has also since criticised China for withholding data about infections and deaths when it lifted its "zero-COVID" measures, as well as about the origins of the pandemic.
China has 24 hours to respond to the WHO under the regulations. But some said it was unclear if the illnesses reported were actually undiagnosed. The story which sparked the ProMED alert came from FTV News in Taiwan on Tuesday [21 Nov 2023]. In China itself, there has been a lot of recent coverage of a rise in respiratory illnesses, including among children.
The authorities there have attributed it to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of viruses like influenza as well as _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_, a common bacterial infection that typically affects younger children. "There is a plausible hypothesis that this could be what we have seen in other parts of the world when restrictions were lifted," said Koopmans, reflecting the views of all of the scientists Reuters contacted.
Virologist Tom Peacock from Imperial College London, who has closely tracked the emergence of new coronavirus variants, said there were good tools available to "pretty rapidly" pick up emerging influenza or coronaviruses, so it seemed unlikely that this had happened under the radar. "(I) suspect it may end up being something more mundane or a combination of things -- say COVID-19, influenza, RSV -- but hopefully we'll know more soon," he said.
[Byline: Jennifer Rigby]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED
[It's worth pointing out that the wording used for the current China alert "undiagnosed pneumonia" along with the also commonly used "undiagnosed respiratory illness" are standard ProMED wording for respiratory diseases presenting with unconfirmed etiologies at time of publication. As ProMED is by design an early warning surveillance system, many of our posts are made before preliminary and/or definitive diagnostic results are available, with those results then provided in follow-up posts. Early warnings allow for appropriate prevention measures to be implemented while test results are still pending, and/or to mobilize testing resources, PPE, etc. needed to positively identify the cause(s). Any implication that using a similar title to our original COVID-19 post somehow created fear among healthcare professionals ignores the very purpose of early warning systems where most events by their very nature will be unconfirmed when the first report is made. To further illustrate this point, we also posted "Undiagnosed respiratory illness - China: (Hong Kong), USA (MI) RFI 20230506.8709890" and "Undiagnosed respiratory illness - Chile: (RM) RFI 20230301.8708657" earlier this year, but neither generated the same level of interest. - Mod.JH]
******
[3]
Date: Wed 22 Nov 2023
Source: Radio Free Asia [abridged, edited]
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/child-pneumonia-11222023114634.html
Hospitals in northern China are currently overwhelmed by thousands of children suffering from a bacterial form of pneumonia that is causing a resurgence of severe illness following a lull during 3 years of zero-COVID-19 restrictions, doctors and health experts told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday [22 Nov 2023].
The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that more than 3500 cases of "respiratory infection" had been admitted to the Beijing Children's Hospital at the beginning of the month [November 2023], while media reports blamed the outbreak on _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_, an atypical bacterium that causes lung infection. Photos and video clips posted to social media from Beijing and Tianjin showed hospital waiting rooms crowded with people, many holding children, amid unconfirmed social media reports that many cases are showing ground glass opacity in lung scans -- an indicator of severe respiratory illness.
The majority of cases seem to be children, with worried parents flooding hospital phone lines and waiting rooms, yet having to wait at least a day even for emergency care. An employee who answered the phone at the Beijing Friendship Hospital pediatrics department said there is currently a 24-hour wait for emergency cases to be seen. "They're still dealing with calls we took yesterday," the employee said. "They haven't even started on today's calls yet -- there are at least 1000 people waiting in the queue ahead of you." "The calls coming in today won't get seen until tomorrow... We're taking more than 1000 calls a day."
The department is staffed with just 3 doctors in the pediatric outpatient clinic and 2 in the emergency room, the employee said. "If you were to register now [for treatment], you wouldn't get seen until 5 pm or 6 pm tomorrow," they said.
An employee who answered the phone at the Beijing New Century Children's Hospital had a similar story. "Wait times are extremely long right now...there are no more appointment slots today," they said. "If you come in and line up to get an appointment, you will have to wait at least 4 hours."
An employee who answered the phone at Tianjin's Beichen Hospital said there are no more appointments there, either. "There are no more slots -- even the additional slots are all full," they said.
Meanwhile, an employee at the Tianjin Children's Hospital said it had shut its doors to new cases by 2.30 pm local time on Wednesday [22 Nov 2023]. "We don't have an emergency department, and we're closed now," the person said. "We can't see everybody, and the doctors get off work at 4 p.m.," they said. "There are too many patients and we only have 2 doctors."
Chinese health officials on Monday [20 Nov 2023] warned that the country is now experiencing a peak of seasonal respiratory disease, with National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng calling on health officials to step up monitoring for _M. pneumoniae_, COVID-19 and seasonal influenza. Monitoring data show that there is growing influenza in both the northern and southern regions, with H3N2 currently the dominant strain, state news agency Xinhua quoted National Influenza Center chief Wang Dayan as saying.
According to Patrick Meyer Sauteur and Michael Beeton of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ was a common cause of respiratory infections before the COVID-19 pandemic, with worldwide incidence of 8.61% from 2017 to 2020. "However, non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19 drastically lowered the transmission of _M. pneumoniae_," they wrote in The Lancet medical journal in August 2022. The authors warned that "If _M. pneumoniae_ infections resurge, they might affect the world population, which has not been exposed to _M. pneumoniae_ for the past 3 years, and result in an increase in rare severe disease."
Mi Ying, deputy chief physician of pediatrics at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, told the Workers' Daily on 15 Nov 2023 that the bug can cause "mild, severe, or even critical illness." "The severity isn't just related to the invasion by the pathogen, but to the person's immune response," he said.
[Byline: Hsia Hsiao-hwa]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED Rapporteur Dan Silver
******
[4]
Date: Thu 23 Nov 2023
From: Robin O. Motz <robinmotz@gmail.com> [edited]
I have heard from a fellow doctor in China. The viral pneumonia is epidemic and affects all age-groups. It is very frequently followed by a bacterial pneumonia which is susceptible to levofloxacin.
--
Communicated by:
Robin O. Motz, MD, PhD
<robinmotz@gmail.com>
[To this point, as earlier in the week, no direct evidence indicates a new, novel pathogen, but ProMED awaits more definitive diagnostic information.
ProMED thanks Dr. Motz for the comment. - Mod.LL
ProMED maps:
Beijing, China: https://promedmail.org/promed-post?place=8713323,353
Liaoning Province, China: https://promedmail.org/promed-post?place=8713323,345]
Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (02): (BJ, LN) children, reported epidemic, comment 20231122.8713277
Undiagnosed pneumonia - China: (BJ, LN) children, reported epidemic, RFI 20231121.8713261
Undiagnosed respiratory illness - China: (Hong Kong), USA (MI) RFI 20230506.8709890
Undiagnosed respiratory illness - Congo DR: (TO) fatal, RFI 20230323.8709110
Undiagnosed respiratory illness - Chile: (RM) RFI 20230301.8708657
2022
----
Undiagnosed respiratory illness - Canada: (ON) nursing home, RFI 20220507.8703106
Undiagnosed pneumonia - Argentina (04): (TU) fatal, legionnaires' dis., conf, RFI 20220906.8705425
Undiagnosed pneumonia - Argentina (03): (TU) fatal, legionnaires' dis., conf., RFI 20220904.8705398
Undiagnosed pneumonia - Argentina (02): (TU) fatal, RFI 20220902.8705360
Undiagnosed pneumonia - Argentina: (TU) fatal, RFI 20220901.8705351
2019
----
Undiagnosed pneumonia - China: (HU) RFI 20191230.6864153
2012
----
Novel coronavirus - Saudi Arabia: human isolate 20120920.1302733
2003
----
Pneumonia - China (Guangdong): RFI 20030210.0357
.................................................ll/rd/jh
***********************************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
[1]
Date: Thu 23 Nov 2023 09:08 EST
Source: BBC [edited]
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-67505218
China has reported no "unusual or novel pathogens" in clusters of child pneumonia cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. Beijing has attributed a rise in flu-like illnesses to the lifting of COVID-19 curbs, said the WHO, which had requested for more data on the cases. Still it urged residents in China to take precautions, like getting vaccinated and wearing masks. Local media had in recent days reported hospitals being overwhelmed.
In a statement on Wednesday [22 Nov 2023], the WHO said it requested China for more information on reports in the media and from ProMED -- a global outbreak surveillance system -- of "clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China." Pneumonia is a general medical term used to describe an infection and inflammation of the lungs. It can be caused by many different viruses, bacteria or fungi.
After the WHO's request, state-run Xinhua news agency published an article which quoted officials of China's National Health Commission (NHC) as saying they were paying close attention to the diagnosis and care of children with respiratory illnesses.
Later on Thursday [23 Nov 2023], the WHO said in a statement that China has not detected any "unusual or novel pathogens," and that the increase in respiratory illnesses spreading in the north of the country was due to "multiple known pathogens." Since October 2023, northern China has reported an "increase in influenza-like illness" compared to the same period over the past 3 years, the WHO said. "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 statement said.
The WHO said it is "closely monitoring the situation and is in close contact with national authorities in China". While mentions of China and a wave of infection can get people jittery as it brings memories of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is good practice for the WHO to ask for clarity.
It is also not unusual for the WHO to ask countries for more information about a cluster of illnesses. They do so almost every day. A specialist WHO team combs through thousands of media reports and internal surveillance information on circulating diseases from countries on a daily basis. Experts then decide whether they need more information, in case it could have the potential to become a public health emergency of international concern. But it is unusual to announce the request for more information publicly. In general, this has previously been done through private channels between the WHO and health officials in a country.
The UN agency is no doubt mindful that people might be more jumpy about viruses reported in China with the not so distant memory of COVID-19. The WHO is also trying to be more transparent in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The UK's health security agency (UKHSA) said it was closely monitoring the situation.
Last week, the Chinese NHC said there had been a rise in several respiratory diseases across the country: in particular influenza, COVID-19, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ -- a common bacterial infection affecting younger children -- and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Officials attributed the rise to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. Other countries, including the UK and the US, saw similar surges in flu-like illnesses once pandemic restrictions were lifted.
"China is likely experiencing a major wave of childhood respiratory infections now as this is the first winter after their lengthy lockdown, which must have drastically reduced the circulation of respiratory bugs, and hence decreased immunity to endemic bugs," said Prof Francois Balloux of the University College of London Genetics Institute. Prof Paul Hunter, of the University of East Anglia (UEA), said at present there was too little information to make a definitive diagnosis of what was causing the infections.
He added: "Overall, this does not sound to me like an epidemic due to a novel [new] virus. If it was, I would expect to see many more infections in adults. The few infections reported in adults suggest existing immunity from a prior exposure."
[Byline: Phelan Chatterjee, Fergus Walsh, and Tulip Mazumdar]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED
******
[2]
Date: Thu 23 Nov 2023 08:56 EST
Source: Reuters [edited]
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/dont-press-pandemic-panic-button-scientists-caution-china-pneumonia-report-2023-11-23/
Leading scientists urged caution over fears of another pandemic on Thursday [23 Nov 2023], after the WHO requested more information from China on a rise of respiratory illnesses and pneumonia clusters among children. "We have to be careful," said Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who advised the WHO on COVID-19. "We really need more information, particularly diagnostic information."
Concerns were first sparked internationally by an alert published on Tuesday [21 Nov 2023], by the monitoring service ProMED, part of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. It called for more information about "Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (Beijing, Liaoning)." The standard wording of the alert echoed the first-ever notice about what would become COVID-19, sent on 30 Dec 2019: "Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (Hubei)."
Scientists said the similarity of the two alerts had stirred as yet unfounded worries the surge may be caused by another emerging pathogen that could spark a pandemic. They said based on the information so far, it was more likely to be a rise in other common respiratory infections like flu, as was seen in many parts of the world after COVID lockdowns were lifted. It could also signal a resurgence of COVID itself.
The WHO always requests information from countries when undiagnosed or unknown diseases are reported, which happens fairly regularly. However, it does not always put out a press release about doing so, as it did on Wednesday [22 Nov 2023].
Brian McCloskey, a public health expert who also advised WHO on the pandemic, said: "What we are seeing is WHO's International Health Regulations system in action," referring to the rules governing how countries work with WHO on potential outbreaks. "I am not going to push the pandemic panic button on the basis of what we know so far, but I will be very keen to see the response to WHO from China and see the WHO's assessment following that," he said.
Both the WHO and China have faced questions over transparency during the early days of COVID. WHO has also since criticised China for withholding data about infections and deaths when it lifted its "zero-COVID" measures, as well as about the origins of the pandemic.
China has 24 hours to respond to the WHO under the regulations. But some said it was unclear if the illnesses reported were actually undiagnosed. The story which sparked the ProMED alert came from FTV News in Taiwan on Tuesday [21 Nov 2023]. In China itself, there has been a lot of recent coverage of a rise in respiratory illnesses, including among children.
The authorities there have attributed it to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of viruses like influenza as well as _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_, a common bacterial infection that typically affects younger children. "There is a plausible hypothesis that this could be what we have seen in other parts of the world when restrictions were lifted," said Koopmans, reflecting the views of all of the scientists Reuters contacted.
Virologist Tom Peacock from Imperial College London, who has closely tracked the emergence of new coronavirus variants, said there were good tools available to "pretty rapidly" pick up emerging influenza or coronaviruses, so it seemed unlikely that this had happened under the radar. "(I) suspect it may end up being something more mundane or a combination of things -- say COVID-19, influenza, RSV -- but hopefully we'll know more soon," he said.
[Byline: Jennifer Rigby]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED
[It's worth pointing out that the wording used for the current China alert "undiagnosed pneumonia" along with the also commonly used "undiagnosed respiratory illness" are standard ProMED wording for respiratory diseases presenting with unconfirmed etiologies at time of publication. As ProMED is by design an early warning surveillance system, many of our posts are made before preliminary and/or definitive diagnostic results are available, with those results then provided in follow-up posts. Early warnings allow for appropriate prevention measures to be implemented while test results are still pending, and/or to mobilize testing resources, PPE, etc. needed to positively identify the cause(s). Any implication that using a similar title to our original COVID-19 post somehow created fear among healthcare professionals ignores the very purpose of early warning systems where most events by their very nature will be unconfirmed when the first report is made. To further illustrate this point, we also posted "Undiagnosed respiratory illness - China: (Hong Kong), USA (MI) RFI 20230506.8709890" and "Undiagnosed respiratory illness - Chile: (RM) RFI 20230301.8708657" earlier this year, but neither generated the same level of interest. - Mod.JH]
******
[3]
Date: Wed 22 Nov 2023
Source: Radio Free Asia [abridged, edited]
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/child-pneumonia-11222023114634.html
Hospitals in northern China are currently overwhelmed by thousands of children suffering from a bacterial form of pneumonia that is causing a resurgence of severe illness following a lull during 3 years of zero-COVID-19 restrictions, doctors and health experts told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday [22 Nov 2023].
The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that more than 3500 cases of "respiratory infection" had been admitted to the Beijing Children's Hospital at the beginning of the month [November 2023], while media reports blamed the outbreak on _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_, an atypical bacterium that causes lung infection. Photos and video clips posted to social media from Beijing and Tianjin showed hospital waiting rooms crowded with people, many holding children, amid unconfirmed social media reports that many cases are showing ground glass opacity in lung scans -- an indicator of severe respiratory illness.
The majority of cases seem to be children, with worried parents flooding hospital phone lines and waiting rooms, yet having to wait at least a day even for emergency care. An employee who answered the phone at the Beijing Friendship Hospital pediatrics department said there is currently a 24-hour wait for emergency cases to be seen. "They're still dealing with calls we took yesterday," the employee said. "They haven't even started on today's calls yet -- there are at least 1000 people waiting in the queue ahead of you." "The calls coming in today won't get seen until tomorrow... We're taking more than 1000 calls a day."
The department is staffed with just 3 doctors in the pediatric outpatient clinic and 2 in the emergency room, the employee said. "If you were to register now [for treatment], you wouldn't get seen until 5 pm or 6 pm tomorrow," they said.
An employee who answered the phone at the Beijing New Century Children's Hospital had a similar story. "Wait times are extremely long right now...there are no more appointment slots today," they said. "If you come in and line up to get an appointment, you will have to wait at least 4 hours."
An employee who answered the phone at Tianjin's Beichen Hospital said there are no more appointments there, either. "There are no more slots -- even the additional slots are all full," they said.
Meanwhile, an employee at the Tianjin Children's Hospital said it had shut its doors to new cases by 2.30 pm local time on Wednesday [22 Nov 2023]. "We don't have an emergency department, and we're closed now," the person said. "We can't see everybody, and the doctors get off work at 4 p.m.," they said. "There are too many patients and we only have 2 doctors."
Chinese health officials on Monday [20 Nov 2023] warned that the country is now experiencing a peak of seasonal respiratory disease, with National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng calling on health officials to step up monitoring for _M. pneumoniae_, COVID-19 and seasonal influenza. Monitoring data show that there is growing influenza in both the northern and southern regions, with H3N2 currently the dominant strain, state news agency Xinhua quoted National Influenza Center chief Wang Dayan as saying.
According to Patrick Meyer Sauteur and Michael Beeton of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ was a common cause of respiratory infections before the COVID-19 pandemic, with worldwide incidence of 8.61% from 2017 to 2020. "However, non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19 drastically lowered the transmission of _M. pneumoniae_," they wrote in The Lancet medical journal in August 2022. The authors warned that "If _M. pneumoniae_ infections resurge, they might affect the world population, which has not been exposed to _M. pneumoniae_ for the past 3 years, and result in an increase in rare severe disease."
Mi Ying, deputy chief physician of pediatrics at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, told the Workers' Daily on 15 Nov 2023 that the bug can cause "mild, severe, or even critical illness." "The severity isn't just related to the invasion by the pathogen, but to the person's immune response," he said.
[Byline: Hsia Hsiao-hwa]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED Rapporteur Dan Silver
******
[4]
Date: Thu 23 Nov 2023
From: Robin O. Motz <robinmotz@gmail.com> [edited]
I have heard from a fellow doctor in China. The viral pneumonia is epidemic and affects all age-groups. It is very frequently followed by a bacterial pneumonia which is susceptible to levofloxacin.
--
Communicated by:
Robin O. Motz, MD, PhD
<robinmotz@gmail.com>
[To this point, as earlier in the week, no direct evidence indicates a new, novel pathogen, but ProMED awaits more definitive diagnostic information.
ProMED thanks Dr. Motz for the comment. - Mod.LL
ProMED maps:
Beijing, China: https://promedmail.org/promed-post?place=8713323,353
Liaoning Province, China: https://promedmail.org/promed-post?place=8713323,345]
See Also
Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (03): (BJ, LN) children, reported epidemic, WHO 20231123.8713293Undiagnosed pneumonia - China (02): (BJ, LN) children, reported epidemic, comment 20231122.8713277
Undiagnosed pneumonia - China: (BJ, LN) children, reported epidemic, RFI 20231121.8713261
Undiagnosed respiratory illness - China: (Hong Kong), USA (MI) RFI 20230506.8709890
Undiagnosed respiratory illness - Congo DR: (TO) fatal, RFI 20230323.8709110
Undiagnosed respiratory illness - Chile: (RM) RFI 20230301.8708657
2022
----
Undiagnosed respiratory illness - Canada: (ON) nursing home, RFI 20220507.8703106
Undiagnosed pneumonia - Argentina (04): (TU) fatal, legionnaires' dis., conf, RFI 20220906.8705425
Undiagnosed pneumonia - Argentina (03): (TU) fatal, legionnaires' dis., conf., RFI 20220904.8705398
Undiagnosed pneumonia - Argentina (02): (TU) fatal, RFI 20220902.8705360
Undiagnosed pneumonia - Argentina: (TU) fatal, RFI 20220901.8705351
2019
----
Undiagnosed pneumonia - China: (HU) RFI 20191230.6864153
2012
----
Novel coronavirus - Saudi Arabia: human isolate 20120920.1302733
2003
----
Pneumonia - China (Guangdong): RFI 20030210.0357
.................................................ll/rd/jh
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="17" height="18"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
