Beijing

Nearly 48 months after an influenza-like illness was reported from China's Wuhan which snowballed into Covid pandemic months later, China has reported an outbreak of influenza-like illness mostly among children. The outbreak which has made the Chinese hospitals "overwhelmed with sick children" has alarmed World Health Organization.

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The WHO cited a press conference held by China's National Health Commission on November 12 to state that the world's second biggest economy is reporting an increase in respiratory diseases in the country.

ProMed, a publicly available surveillance system which reports on the infectious disease outbreaks, issued an alert over the "undiagnosed pneumonia" in children. 

Notably, ProMed alerted about SARs-CoV-2 in December 2019 long before the pandemic swept the world.

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Why this 'epidemic' is emerging in China?

The WHO said that Chinese authorities attributed the increase to the lifting of Covid restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, Mycoplasma pneumoniae (a common bacterial infection which typically affects younger children), respiratory syncytial virus, and the virus that causes Covid.

What next?

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Authorities in China have stressed the need for enhanced disease surveillance in healthcare facilities and community settings. They have also emphasised expanding the capacity of the health system which is being "overwhelmed" due to more children getting infected.

Spotlight on China's record over hiding emergence of Covid

The infamous tweet by the World Health Organization on January 14, 2022, that nearly absolved Chinese authorities and downed the red flags raised worldwide over the spread of Covid is back in the spotlight.

The WHO wrote on Twitter (now X): "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China."

Also watch | Undiagnosed Pneumonia outbreak in China, reports eerily similar to 2019 Covid outbreak | WION

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But so far, the organisation appears to be more cautious in its initial response to a similar emergence of a viral outbreak. 

On Wednesday (Nov 22), WHO said groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China.

WHO said it is not clear if these are associated with the overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities or separate events.

Also read | WHO urges China to reveal information about COVID-19 origins

The health agency said it has requested additional epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results from these reported outbreaks among children through the International Health Regulations mechanism.

(With inputs from agencies)