Parents clutch children hooked to IVs as suspected pneumonia outbreak hits China
Scenes of parents clutching children while running through crowded waiting rooms in China are circulating on social media, leading the WHO to demand answers.
ITV News Health and Science Correspondent Martin Stew analyses if the suspected outbreak of pneumonia is anything to worry about.
Words by Daniel Boal, ITV News Multimedia Producer
Pictures have emerged of Chinese hospitals "overwhelmed" with parents holding their children while hooked up to IVs following an outbreak of suspected pneumonia.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is pushing China for answers over the exact cause of the illness.
Scenes witnessed in the footage have raised concerns in the first winter since the country's longest and strictest lockdown.
In scenes reminiscent of the Covid pandemic, TikTok videos showcase parents clutching their children and running through overcrowded waiting rooms, as others queue shoulder-to-shoulder to enter the hospitals.
The official line coming out of China is that there is a spike in respiratory diseases including flu, Covid, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and mycoplasma. Currently, top virologists have said there is a right to be cautious but there is no need to panic.
ProMed - a system that monitors global disease outbreaks worldwide and was one of the first groups to identify the dangers of Covid-19 - issued a notification on Tuesday detailing the epidemic.
It highlighted overcrowding at Beijing's children's hospital and several other big cities.
A Beijing citizen, who ProMed identified as Mr W, said: "Many, many are hospitalised. They don't cough and have no symptoms. They just have a high temperature (fever) and many develop pulmonary nodules."
Mr W said children were told not go to to school if they had pneumonia.
A similar situation is developing in Liaoning Province which is almost 500 miles from Beijing.
ProMed said the lobby of the local children's hospital was full with many kids receiving intravenous drips.
They quoted a staff member of Dalian Central Hospital saying: "Patients have to wait in line for 2 hours, and we are all in the emergency department and there are no general outpatient clinics."
ITV News Health and Science Reporter Martin Stew talks to Professor Ravi Gupta about the risk of the pneumonia outbreak
A report from October on the China Daily website attributed the rise to mycoplasma pneumoniae, a pathogen that often causes respiratory illness among children.
Zhou Huixia, a director at a children's medical centre told the website infections had been rising over the year but it was "particularly ferocious" in October.
Zhou said the domestic spread of the disease has been rising since 2015 and reached a crest in 2019.
Due to virus control measures rolled out during the Covid-19 pandemic, infection numbers declined significantly in years until the latest outbreak emerged.
China scrapped all of its Covid restrictions at the start of 2023.
The UK experienced a wave of mycoplasma pneumoniae infections in the months after Covid restrictions were lifted from the population as years of suppressed circulation hit all at once.
Symptoms include sore throat, fatigue and a cough that can last for weeks or months.
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