China warns of major respiratory outbreak during winters, National Health Commission on alert

The World has more concerning news from China as another wave and outbreak of respiratory illness could be on the verge as China’s National Health Commission has warned the Chinese people of a major outbreak this winter.

China has been grappling with mycoplasma-caused pneumonia which has caused an overwhelming effect on the Chinese healthcare system. The hospitals in mainland China are flooded with childrens going through respiratory issues. The respiratory outbreak has got everyone’s attention bringing back the gruesome memories of the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020.

The outbreak has given a major headache for China and has also seen the World Health Organization (WHO) in action taking note from Beijing. However, China has refuted that the mycoplasma-caused pneumonia outbreak has anything to do with a new or an unusual pathogen. According to health experts in China, an existing pathogen is likely behind the outbreak as only childrens have been infected and not adults.

Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong said, “We don’t think there is a major issue there or there is some unknown disease or something that is hidden. We have no evidence for that. The fact that only children are affected suggests this is most likely to be an existing pathogen. If it’s a new pathogen it should mostly hit adults. It looks like it’s something adults have got accustomed to.”

The existing mycoplasma-caused pneumonia wave is declining as the admission of new patients in hospitals has gone down recently in mainland China. However, China’s National Health Commission sounded an alarm among the Chinese people with the warning of a new respiratory outbreak in the winter which could go on till the spring.

Taiwan has been on an alert over the respiratory outbreak given frequent exchanges with the Chinese mainland. Currently, no unusual pathogen has been detected in Taiwan and that nation is completely focused on its upcoming general elections. According to Airfinity, other countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Singapore have also seen an uptick in respiratory illness cases.