Endless queues in emergency departments, patients forced to scour hospitals one after the other to be treated, parents who alert on social networks, and the World Health Organization ( WHO) who is worried: the images arriving from northern China recall the most difficult hours of Covid-19. But this time, besides the SARS-CoV-2, other pathogens are also at work: influenza (influenza A) dominates, but respiratory syncytial virus, adenoviruses, and bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae are also widely present.
Faced with this resurgence of infections, the Emerging Disease Surveillance Program (ProMED) issued an alert on Tuesday, November 21, mentioning “a widespread outbreak of an undiagnosed respiratory disease.” “It is not at all clear when this outbreak began, as it would be unusual for such a large number of children to be affected so quickly”underlines the organization in a press release.
The Chinese Health Commission held a press conference on November 13 to report an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases. Insufficient for the WHO, which sent an official request “detailed information on the increase in respiratory illnesses and pneumonia cases reported in China”November 22. The WHO also recommends that the Chinese population “follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness”in particular vaccination, wearing a mask and isolating patients.
“Immunity debt”
While China did not communicate directly, the WHO broadcast Beijing’s response on Thursday evening : “Chinese authorities indicated that no new or unusual pathogens had been detected, nor any unusual clinical signs, including in Beijing and Liaoning, but that this was only a general increase in number of cases of respiratory illnesses due to known pathogens »the WHO said in a statement.
No “mysterious virus” therefore, as some media headlined, on the basis of the ProMED alert mentioning these diseases “undiagnosed”. Rather, it is the phenomenon that many countries experienced after the lifting of restrictions linked to Covid-19: a strong return of other pathogens. In 2022, France, for example, experienced an explosion in cases of bronchiolitis, due to the low exposure of children to the respiratory syncytial virus for two years thanks to the application of barrier gestures.
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