Cases of pneumonia in children have unexpectedly surged in the Netherlands at an alarming rate – at the same time as China continues to grapple with a tidal wave of respiratory illnesses that threaten to overwhelm its hospitals.
Last week, 80 out of every 100,000 children in the Netherlands between the ages of 5 and 15 were treated for pneumonia, the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) reported.
Cases of pneumonia among children aged 4 and under also increased, jumping from 124 to 145 per 100,000.
This is the largest pneumonia outbreak recorded by the Utrecht-based research institute in recent years.
By comparison, at the peak of the flu season in 2022, there will be 60 cases recorded for every 100,000 children in the 5- to 15-year-old age group.
The Netherlands is seeing an alarming surge in childhood pneumonia cases amid a rise in the mysterious respiratory disease sweeping across China. ZUMAPRESS.com
Neither NIVEL nor the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands could provide an explanation for the sudden increase in pneumonia cases among children.
It is not known whether the alarming health trends seen in Europe are related to the rise of a mysterious respiratory illness that is sweeping across parts of China.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese health officials argue that no new or unusual pathogens have been found in the pneumonia cases.
The surge in illness has been blamed on children infected with known viruses such as influenza, rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and adenovirus, which they have avoided during the two years of the COVID restrictions.
Strict lockdown rules have been lifted in China at the end of 2022, making this the region’s first post-Covid flu season.
Medical experts in China have suggested that lack of exposure to common viruses during the protracted lockdown has weakened the population’s immunity.
In the Netherlands, however, the measures of the COVID era have long since disappeared, raising questions about what could have triggered this new surge in childhood pneumonia cases.
Distressing videos showing hospitals in Beijing and other parts of northern China overcrowded with sick children and their parents that have emerged in recent days have set off alarm bells around the world.
The WHO has taken the rare step of asking Chinese health officials to publicly provide data on a cluster of pneumonia cases, which were found to be driven by a known virus.
“We asked about the comparison before the epidemic. And the waves they are seeing now, the peak is not as high as what they saw in 2018-2019,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention department. “This is not an indication of a new pathogen. This is expected. This is what most countries dealt with a year or two ago.”
Questions have been raised about whether the Chinese government is covering up the early stages of another pandemic, after being accused of botching its response to the emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
