WHO asks China for more data on spread of ‘mystery’ child pneumonia

“WHO requested additional epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results from these reported clusters among children, through the International Health Regulations mechanism,” the UN agency said. 

“We have also requested further information about recent trends in the circulation of known pathogens including influenza, Sars-CoV-2, RSV and mycoplasma pneumoniae, and the current burden on health care systems.” 

Weibo, a Chinese social media site, is awash with video clips reminiscent of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In one video, a crowded line of parents holding intravenous drips above their children’s heads snakes through a waiting room in Xi’an, a large city in central China.

Another clip shows hundreds of people in face masks queuing outside Beijing Children’s Hospital, while one photo warns more than 700 are already in line to see a doctor.

“Dear parents, there are currently a lot of children suffering,” says the bulletin at a regional hospital. “It takes around 13 hours to wait for treatment.” 

Concerns were initially raised in an alert from ProMed, which first alerted the world to a mystery virus later named Sars-Cov-2 in December 2019.

The notification suggested the symptoms reported were not in keeping with the usual pathogens that are seen during winter, such as RSV, suggesting an “undiagnosed respiratory illness” may be spreading. 

“This report suggests a widespread outbreak of an undiagnosed respiratory illness … It is not at all clear when this outbreak started as it would be unusual for so many children to be affected so quickly,” an editor’s note said.

For many people, the alert brought back memories of 2019.

“The last time I saw reports of an outbreak of undiagnosed pneumonia in China [I] thought, naa … no big deal. Won’t amount to much,” Dr Neil Stone, an infectious diseases specialist at the University College Hospital in London, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.