BEIJING: The World Health Organization has asked China for more data on respiratory illnesses spreading in the north of the country, but Beijing offered no public comment on Thursday (Nov 23).
Northern China has reported an increase in “influenza-like illness” since mid-October when compared to the same period in the previous three years, the WHO said.
“WHO has made an official request to China for detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children,” the UN health body said in a statement on Wednesday.
China’s National Health Commission told reporters last week that the respiratory illness spike was due to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens, namely influenza and common bacterial infections that affect children, including mycoplasma pneumonia.
The Chinese capital of Beijing, located in the north of the country, is currently experiencing a cold snap, with temperatures expected to plummet to well below zero by Friday, state media said.
The city has “entered a high incidence season of respiratory infectious diseases”, Wang Quanyi, deputy director and chief epidemiological expert at the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state media.
Beijing “is currently showing a trend of multiple pathogens coexisting”, he added.
The WHO gave no indication of China’s response to the request for more information.
China’s National Health Commission did not respond to a request for comment by AFP on Thursday.
And Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning referred journalists to “the competent Chinese authorities”.
“DUE TO THE SEASON”
And at Beijing’s Capital Institute of Pediatrics’ Children’s Hospital on Thursday, AFP journalists saw crowds of parents and children dressed in winter clothes.
A parent surnamed Zhang accompanied her coughing nine-year-old son and said he had fallen ill 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!”
On Thursday, China’s National Health Commission published an interview with the state media agency Xinhua in which it advised parents what to do and mentioned that big hospitals were receiving a large number of patients and waiting times were long. It did not comment on the WHO notice.
Li Meiling, 42, had brought her eight-year-old daughter, who she said was suffering from the same type of pneumonia.
“It’s true that a lot of children her age are ill with this at the moment,” she told AFP.
But she said she was “not particularly worried” about the WHO announcement.
“It’s winter, so it’s normal that there are more cases of respiratory illnesses. It’s due to the season.”
Source: CNA
