A MYSTERY pneumonia outbreak sweeping through China continues to get worse as desperate parents are clutching onto their children on hospital floors.
Kids are being hooked up to life-saving IVs as Beijing – where the unknown virus has badly hit – continues to downplay the dangers almost a week after issues started.
Credit: AFPA mysterious pneumonia outbreak has been sweeping through China affecting thousands of children[/caption]
Credit: AFPThe horror outbreak is getting worse as Beijing downplays the potential dangers of another global virus[/caption]
The mystery illness has caused panic for parents who have been rushing to hospitals
The dangerous illness is taking down children and emptying out schools across China as worrying echos of the Covid outbreak are being reported.
Doctors have been left overwhelmed with thousands of calls from worried parents trying to book emergency appointments.
Beijing has told the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the increase in cases of people with flu like symptoms is down to a new winter bug that has taken over due to Covid lowering immunity to common viruses.
Hospitals are reportedly “overwhelmed with sick children” who have symptoms such as inflammation in the lungs and a high fever but no cough.
A similar situation is developing in Liaoning – almost 500 miles from Beijing.
Officials have reported an increase in “influenza-like illness” since mid-October when compared to the same period in the last three years, the WHO said.
Children are now showing ground glass opacity, also known as “white lung syndrome”, in lung scans – an indicator of severe respiratory illness.
Many parents are deeply worried about “white lungs” and many sick children need “lung cleansing”, report Radio Free Asia.
But with hospitals warning of long waiting queues, parents are having to wait at least a day just for emergency care.
ProMed – a system that monitors global disease outbreaks and was one of the first groups to identify the dangers of Covid – issued a warning on Tuesday.
A Beijing citizen ProMed, identified only as Mr W, said: “Many, many are hospitalised. They don’t cough and have no symptoms.
“They just have a high temperature and many develop pulmonary nodules.”
At Beijing’s Capital Institute of Pediatrics’ Children’s Hospital, crowds of parents and children were seen dressed in winter clothes.
A parent said her coughing nine-year-old son was sick with mycoplasma pneumonia – a pathogen that can cause sore throats, fatigue and fever.
“There are really a lot of children who have caught it recently,” she said. “Of course that worries me.”
Li Meiling, 42, brought her eight-year-old daughter to the hospital, who she said was suffering from the same type of pneumonia.
“A lot of children her age are ill with this at the moment,” she added.
Dr Hua Shaodong, a paediatrician at the Beijing Children’s Hospital, told China Daily: “There is a steady number of patients developing severe cases, but there are very few critical cases, and there are no related deaths so far.
“The average days in hospital for hospitalised patients is around seven to 14 days.”
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) chief executive Professor Dame Jenny Harries said despite China’s official response, they are keeping an ‘open mind’.
She said: “The WHO has received an official response from China following its request for detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children.
“We need to keep an open mind about the cause of any increased reporting of clusters of disease including of this illness in Chinese children.’
She added that UKHSA is “closely monitoring the situation” and will keep a close eye on the situation to help keep the UK safe from any potential threat of a global outbreak again.
Last year, China was desperately clinging onto its “zero Covid” strategy as officials banned 13 million people from going outside as they faced starvation and brutal punishments.
The country was racing to control one of its worst outbreaks in a single city since the beginning of the pandemic with a sweeping lockdown and draconian restrictions.
China’s brutal “zero Covid” policy saw extreme restrictions in the infected areas, tight border control and lengthy quarantines as the country prepared for the Winter Olympics in February 2022.
The 13 million people living in the northern city of Xian had been banned from leaving their homes – even for essential reasons like buying food – to squash the rising tide of Covid infections.
ReutersThe UK is keeping close eyes on the virus to avoid another Covid-style incident[/caption]
ReutersParents have been waiting for up to hours outside hospitals[/caption]
Credit: AFPChildren are experiencing flu-like symptoms and a high fever but no cough[/caption]