What’s Behind ‘Mystery Wave’ of Pneumonia?

What’s Behind ‘Mystery Wave’ of Pneumonia?

Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization (WHO) have reported an upsurge in respiratory infections among children in northern China. China reported that 3,500 children were admitted to the hospital in October and November. The Beijing Friendship Hospital pediatrics department on Nov. 11 told Radio Free Asia the department was fielding about 1,000 calls a day requesting emergency treatment.

Campbell said there are clearly clusters of pneumonia that need an explanation.

Given how long and intensely China was locked down during the COVID-19pandemic, a certain number of rebound respiratory infections are expected among children who, because they were isolated during lockdown and not exposed to the typical number of pathogens, experience a “community immunity debt.”

But according to Campbell, there are some unusual in this surge, including that for the first time, China is reporting the presence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Mycoplasma is an unusual form of simple, small bacteria that can cause atypical pneumonia in some children and adults.

Local reports suggest this type of pneumonia is manifesting as inflammation in the lungs and a high fever, but with no cough. The lack of cough is inconsistent with pneumonia or mycoplasmic infection, Campbell said.

“One thing that really concerned me here was the World Health Organization said they did this under the terms of the International Health Regulations (IHR), which of course we know they’re in the process of trying to amend to make them really even stronger,” Campbell said.

There is some inconsistency with the seasonality, and outbreaks are expected, although this outbreak seems larger than is typically expected.

Bacterial pneumonia can often occur after a viral infection, he said, so one question to ask is, “s there a common virus here that’s predisposing people to bacterial infections? Could this be a novel virus?”

“What we’re probably dealing with here is potentially dangerous micoplasma antibiotic-resistance,” Campbell said.

Studies from Beijing show that the bacterial resistance to myoplasmic pneumonia in Beijing is between 70-90%, he said and typically mycoplasma infections are treated with antibiotics.

Children who are sick could be infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain. If that were to spread globally, he said, the main danger is that people would have difficulty treating it.

“Why the Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization wouldn’t want to discuss something as straightforward as bacterial resistance is difficult to know but there is a culture of secrecy in certain authorities in China so it’s not that surprising really.”

“It’s a pity” he said, that in its press release, the WHO doesn’t talk about optimizing the immune system with nutrition, vitamin D, sleep and exercise. Instead it talks about mask-wearing and isolation, which, he said, “didn’t work very well during the COVID pandemic, did it?”

“We can no longer fully depend on antibiotics the way we once could,” Campbell.  “Perhaps we need to be looking at ways of upgrading the immune system so that if people get this infection it is less serious for them to suffer from.”