Despite the worrisome development, the world’s leading virologists approach the situation calmly.
The explosive increase in cases of respiratory infections and pneumonia among children in China in recent weeks has caused fear of the danger of a new coronavirus-like pandemic.
Concern arose on Tuesday after the disease monitoring service ProMED issued an alert about “undiagnosed pneumonia” spreading in China.
People’s worries have not been alleviated by the fact that the message literally mirrored the first message that warned about the coronavirus in its time, which was sent on December 30 in 2019.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has asked China for further clarification regarding the cases.
Representative of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mao Ning did not agree to comment on the matter, but urged the journalists to contact “authorities in China who know about the matter”.
Despite the worrying development, the world’s leading virologists have so far tried to calm the fear caused by the situation.
– I suspect that this will turn out to be a rather everyday situation, where corona, influenza and RS virus cases have simultaneously increased. Hopefully we’ll have more information soon, virologist at Imperial College London Tom Peacock says.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Health, the reason is the removal of corona restrictions and the activation of already familiar viruses.
A Dutch virologist who acted as an advisor to the World Health Organization during the corona pandemic Marion Koopmans also approaches the situation calmly, but with reservations.
– We have to be careful. We still need a lot more information, says Koopmans.
He says, in many other ways, that he believes that the rapidly increasing cases of disease are the result of the removal of corona restrictions.
– I wouldn’t press the panic button yet based on the current information, but I look forward to the results of the report by China and WHO, British health expert Brian McCloskey in turn says.
Both China and the WHO have been criticized for not taking the spread of the coronavirus seriously enough at the beginning of the pandemic.
No foreign pathogens
The WHO said late on Thursday that it had discussed with the Chinese health authorities about the respiratory diseases spread among children.
According to the WHO, China has so far not found any unusual or new pathogens in the sick.
Sources: Reuters, STT
The story was supplemented at 21:20 with information about the discussions between China and the WHO.