What Is 'Walking Pneumonia' That Chinese Doctors Are Reporting Among School Children? EXPLAINED

Beijing: China is once again battling a deluge of an epidemic. If reports in social media posts and also by international, credible news agencies are to be trusted, a mysterious influenza-like illness has gripped schoolchildren in China. The "undiagnosed pneumonia" outbreak is being termed as "walking pneumonia" while Chinese authorities share little or no information on what the new strain of the infectious virus has been identified as.

An alert has reportedly been issued over the reported epidemic of 'undiagnosed pneumonia' among Chinese children. Chinese hospitals have been “overwhelmed with sick children” as an outbreak of pneumonia escalates in cities across the country, including Beijing, according to reports, reports the UK Daily "Telegraph". Meanwhile, China denies that the situation is any cause for concern. China’s health commission said a combination of pathogens is causing a surge in acute respiratory infections across the country, reiterating previous comments aimed at easing concerns a novel virus may be the source.

ProMed – a large, publicly available surveillance system that monitors human and animal disease outbreaks worldwide – issued a notification late on Tuesday detailing a reported epidemic of “undiagnosed pneumonia” in children.

It was a ProMed alert in late December 2019 that brought a mystery virus later named Sars-Cov-2 to the attention of many doctors and scientists, including senior officials at the World Health Organization.

The latest post by Pro-Med, based on a report from the Taiwanese outlet FTV News, said that hospitals in the capital Beijing, and Liaoning – almost 500 miles northeast – were struggling amid an influx of children sick with pneumonia.

“Many, many are hospitalised,” a male citizen of China - named Wei, (who lives in Beijing), told FTV News. “They don’t cough and have no symptoms. They just have a high temperature (fever) and many develop pulmonary nodules.”

In an editor’s note, ProMed said:

The alert added that more definitive information is needed to determine the cause and scope.

However, the outbreak could be linked to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, also known as “walking pneumonia”, which is reportedly surging as China enters its first winter without its stringent Covid-19 lockdown in place.

Other countries, including the UK and the US, saw similar surges in diseases such as RSV and flu once pandemic restrictions were lifted, as years of suppressed circulation hit immunity among the population

According to Mayo Clinic, "Walking pneumonia" is an informal term for a common bacterial condition. It produces milder symptoms that appear more gradually than in other types of more serious pneumonia.

Symptoms of "Walking Pneumonia":

• Cough.
• Fever.
• Sore throat.
• Headache.
• Runny nose.
• Ear pain.
• Chest pain from coughing.

Symptoms usually appear within two to three weeks of becoming infected and can continue for weeks. A cough could continue for months.

Why Is It Called "Walking Pneumonia"?

With walking pneumonia, you may feel like you have a cold. But symptoms are usually mild, so you likely won't need bed rest or a hospital stay. You may not feel the need to stay home from work or school. So you may be out walking around. That's how the illness got its name.

While anyone can catch this infection, it is most common in children, especially those ages 5 to 15 years old - which is the school-going age and then these kids end up infecting family members.

Walking pneumonia spreads through airborne droplets from close contact, such as coughing, sneezing, or speaking. Those on weakened immunity, or with autoimmune conditions, suppressed immunity (transplant patients), those with severe respiratory allergies, etc. are more vulnerable.

What are the possible complications of Walking Pneumonia?

“It is the first wave of mycoplasma pneumoniae infections since most Covid-19 containment measures were lifted at the beginning of this year,” Zhou Huixia, director of the Children’s medical centre at the Seventh Medical Center of the Chinese PLA General Hospital, told China Daily.

Yet Chinese experts stressed that very few children have died from “walking pneumonia” to date.

“There is a steady number of patients developing severe cases, but there are very few critical cases, and there are no related deaths so far,” Hua Shaodong, a paediatrician at the Beijing Children’s Hospital, told China Daily. “The average days in the hospital for hospitalized patients is around seven to 14 days.”

Canadian daily The Toronto Star also states that the WHO noted that authorities at China’s National Health Commission on November 13 reported an increase in respiratory diseases, which they said was due to the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. WHO reassures that there is nothing unusual about China's flu epidemic and that other countries also saw a jump in respiratory diseases such as respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, when pandemic restrictions ended.