Reports of clusters of unexplained pneumonia among children in multiple cities in China made headlines this week. Yet Chinese authorities and close watchers of the situation say the rise in illness is likely linked to known threats circulating after the country lifted public health restrictions — not a new pathogen.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it had held a teleconference with Chinese health authorities, who provided data showing an increase in outpatient visits and hospital admissions of children due to well-known illnesses in recent months.
The WHO said the data showed a rise in illness since October that is linked to the circulation of several well-known viruses: influenza, adenovirus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). It also showed increased illness since May linked to Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The bacteria causes a common childhood infection and is known for a mild form of disease called atypical pneumonia, often called walking pneumonia.
“Some of these increases are earlier in the season than historically experienced, but not unexpected given the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, as similarly experienced in other countries,” the WHO noted.
Chinese health authorities didn’t report any changes in symptoms and said there has been “no detection of any unusual or novel pathogens.”
That includes both Beijing and Liaoning, two cities nearly 700 kilometres apart that were highlighted in a Tuesday alert from the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED). The public infectious disease surveillance system described clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia cases among children, based on a report from a news station in Taiwan.
Chinese authorities pinned those cases on the “aforementioned general increase in respiratory illnesses due to multiple known pathogens” and told the WHO the spike “has not resulted in patient loads exceeding hospital capacities.”
China recently launched enhanced outpatient and inpatient surveillance covering a broad spectrum of viruses and bacteria, including — for the first time — M. pneumoniae, the WHO said in its statement. This “may have contributed to the observed increase in detection and reporting of respiratory illness in children.”
China’s COVID-19 restrictions in place through 2022
China also maintained a zero-COVID policy for several years, only lifting strict restrictions at the end of 2022. Since then, various respiratory viruses have started circulating again, noted Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases specialist with McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
“But that doesn’t mean that younger populations have necessarily seen all these viruses yet,” he added. “They may have seen only a handful of them.”
A novel pathogen would likely strike the entire population at once, Chagla noted. The early details from China suggest primarily children are impacted, he said, .
American pediatrician and vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez agreed. Speaking to CBC News, he said younger age groups may simply lack immunity from exposure to viruses and bacteria that commonly circulate, but were kept at bay over the last few years.
Other countries that started lifting public health restrictions earlier — including Canada — also experienced surges of various infections in the months that followed. Here, a triple threat of flu, COVID-19 and RSV flooded children’s hospitals a year ago, leading to long wait times, shortages in beds and staff, and in some cases, cancelled surgeries.
“[Chinese authorities] certainly have no reason to obscure the information,” Hotez said.
“And look, surges on pediatric hospital beds are not unusual. We have experienced that in the United States and we have experienced it in Canada, so there is nothing to think that there is anything unsavoury going on,”
Still, Chagla said ongoing information-sharing is crucial. China was previously accused of withholding data around the COVID-19 pandemic, and has faced extensive criticism over a perceived lack of transparency.
“This is an area of the world where we’ve had two pandemics shown up, which have been reported first in ProMED … so there’s always a need for caution, appropriate surveillance and testing to make sure nothing else has happened,” Chagla said.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
