Beijing (AFP) – China did not detect “unusual or new” pathogens related to a rebound in respiratory diseases in the north of the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed this Friday, November 24. The WHO, which sees no reason to impose travel restrictions on the Asian nation, had asked China this week for detailed information on the recent increase in cases of respiratory diseases and outbreaks of childhood pneumonia. Meanwhile, the Government of India reported that it is closely monitoring the situation in the neighboring country.
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Northern China detected an increase in “influenza-like illnesses” since mid-October compared to data from the previous three years, the WHO said.
Following the announcement, the UN health agency requested additional information from the Asian country “about an increase in respiratory diseases and outbreaks of pneumonia in children,” as stated in a statement published on the X network.
Chinese authorities responded “that no unusual or new pathogens or unusual clinical presentations have been detected,” the WHO said Thursday.
According to authorities, this is the “mentioned general increase in respiratory diseases due to multiple known pathogens,” he added.
The National Health Commission declared to the press last week that the rebound in respiratory diseases was due to the lifting of anti-Covid restrictions and the circulation of other known pathogens.
The Chinese capital, in the north of the country, is experiencing a cold wave, with temperatures expected to fall well below 0ºC on Friday, according to state media.
Temperatures plummeted as Beijing “entered the season of high incidence of infectious respiratory diseases“Vice director and epidemiological expert of the city’s disease prevention center, Wang Quanyi, told state media.
Beijing “currently shows a trend of multiple pathogens coexisting,” he said.
“It is winter”
At the Beijing Capital Institute of Pediatrics Children’s Hospital, reporters saw numerous parents with their children in the waiting room.
A mother surnamed Zhang was accompanying her nine-year-old son who she said had pneumonia. “A lot of children got sick recently,” she said.
Li Meiling, 42, whose eight-year-old daughter suffered from microplasma pneumonia, a pathogen that causes sore throat, fatigue and fever, agrees with her.
But the mother was not “particularly concerned” by the WHO advisory. “It’s winter: it’s normal for there to be more cases of respiratory diseases,” she said.
On November 21, the media and the public disease surveillance system ProMED reported outbreaks of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China.
The WHO therefore requested “additional epidemiological and clinical information, as well as laboratory results of the outbreaks detected in children.”
He also requested “complementary information on recent trends in the circulation of known pathogens, especially influenza, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus responsible for covid-19), RSV that affects babies and mycoplasma pneumoniae, as well as degree of congestion in the health system,” the statement added.
During the covid-19 pandemic, whose first cases were detected in China at the end of 2019, WHO reproached Beijing for lack of transparency and cooperation.
The UN health agency and different countries also denounced this lack of cooperation from China in the investigation to determine the origins of the pandemic, which has not yet reached definitive conclusions.
With information from AFP and EFE
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