Mysterious pneumonia outbreak sweeps through China, hospitals swamped

New Delhi: Hospitals in China are flooding with patients as a pneumonia outbreak is sweeping through the country’s schools, India Today reported.

Global health experts expressed concern about the situation as the country is still reeling from the aftereffects of Covid-19 pandemic.

The pediatric hospitals in Beijing and Liaoning province, believed to be the epicentres of the outbreak, is overwhelmed by increasing number of sick children.

Schools have been shut in several places after both students and children have fallen ill.

The situation, according to reports, is reminiscent of the Covid-19 outbreak in its early days back when China was caught unawares by a mysterious viral fever.

The symptoms now identified include high fever and lung inflammation, but no cough, which is common in respiratory virus diseases like RSV.

‘Many, many (children) are hospitalised. They don’t cough and have no symptoms. They just have a high temperature and many develop pulmonary nodules,’ a Beijing resident told Taiwanese news website FTV News.

It is not yet clear if the condition is widely reported among adults, as it is happening among children, which could be linked to possible school environs.

ProMed, an international disease surveillance platform, on Tuesday expressed concern about the undiagnosed pneumonia affecting children.

A video shared by US epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding showed people wearing face masks, reminiscent of Covid-19 days.

Medical professionals believe that children are down with a common bacterial infection called mycoplasma pneumonia, which usually affects younger children.

The disease causes mild infection but it could often become severe requiring hospitalization.

Chinese hospitals have reported increasing cases of undiagnosed pneumonia since the National holiday in early October.

Despite the widespread outbreak, no deaths have been reported so far.