- Northern China is struggling with a wave of respiratory illnesses among its children.
- Cities like Beijing and Tianjin have been hit hard by cases of flu and pneumonia, hospitals said.
Flu, pneumonia, and COVID cases have surged in recent weeks among children in China, overwhelming hospitals and stoking fears of a new national epidemic.
Medical facilities in northern Chinese cities are warning that pediatric visits have swelled to new levels, compounded with the usual uptick in respiratory illnesses from winter setting in.
The Beijing Aviation General Hospital said on Friday that its pediatrics unit has been grappling with pneumonia and flu cases since the beginning of autumn, rising to a current 550 to 650 visits per day. That's 30 to 50% more than the same period in previous years, the hospital said.
Management has been shoring up manpower in the pediatrics unit with senior doctors from the cardiovascular, neurology, and critical care departments, and has increased the number of security guards on-site, the hospital said.
Just 60 miles southeast, Tianjian Children's Hospital Director Liu Wei published a Saturday letter via the city's WeChat announcement channel, saying his staff were overwhelmed.
More than 13,171 patients had been admitted to the hospital's two campuses in the last 24 hours, Liu wrote, imploring parents to remain calm.
"Our hospital staff have been working hard," Liu wrote. "They are also children of their parents. Their children have also been having fevers."
One parent at a Wuhan hospital on Friday said their son, a fourth-grader, was suffering from pneumonia, but that the waitlist at some medical facilities stretched up to five days, reported JiuPai News, run by the Hubei regional daily Changjiang News.
The identities of the parent and child were not revealed by the outlet.
National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng warned on November 13 that the country was seeing respiratory diseases "entering a season of high frequency," and called on hospitals to coordinate their medical resources.
Fears grow on social media
The wave of hospitalizations and illnesses has prompted concern on Chinese social media, with parents saying they're struggling to book appointments in hospitals.
"It's not just in Beijing. Chongqing is facing difficulties over here," one person wrote on Weibo, China's version of Twitter. "All the children have respiratory illnesses."
"If Beijing doesn't have the medical resources, how can other places survive?" another wrote.
Some have called for schools to close. "It's come to this. The education authorities are still not willing to move to online classes," one Weibo user complained, responding to a state media article explaining how parents can care for their sick kids without medical assistance.
Several bloggers on Weibo have stirred controversy with viral posts showing photos of children doing homework while being administered IV drips. Business Insider could not verify the authenticity of the posted photos.
"Doing homework in the hospital with a fever and cough," one blogger, Guandong Wilderness, wrote. "Is that really necessary?"
State media, meanwhile, is urging parents to send older children to a doctor only if their fevers last three days or more.
"Respiratory tract infection is a common disease in children," the People's Daily wrote. "For most respiratory tract infections, the best course is to treat the symptoms."
Hu Xijin, the former editor of state-aligned tabloid The Global Times and one of Weibo's most popular commentators, projected an upbeat tone on Wednesday and encouraged people to get flu shots.
"For the safety of yourself and those around you, Old Hu suggests everyone not be careless, and get the flu vaccine if you can," he said, posting a photo of his bare arm.
An expert said the rise in cases may be linked to the end of China's lengthy lockdown
The World Health Organization on Wednesday issued a statement saying it had asked China for information on the surge in respiratory illnesses, particularly among children.
It said it also requested details on trends in flu, COVID-19, pneumonia, and respiratory syncytial virus, as well as information on whether China's medical system is coping.
David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, said: "It is important to consider that there is likely a background of seasonal respiratory infections — the challenge is to discern the outbreaks and determine the cause. There are many different known viruses that could be the cause and these must all be sought in testing."
Francois Balloux, professor of computational systems biology and director of the UCL Genetics Institute, UK, said: "China is likely experiencing a major wave of childhood respiratory infections now as this is the first winter after their lengthy lockdown, which must have drastically reduced the circulation of respiratory bugs, and hence decreased immunity to endemic bugs.
"Unless new evidence emerged, there is no reason to suspect the emergence of a novel pathogen."