China is seeing an uptick in respiratory illness – should we be worried?

Reports of a surge in pneumonia-like illness primarily affecting children in northern China have captured our attention. The last time we heard about a mysterious respiratory outbreak leading to overcrowding in hospitals was the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, so it’s not entirely surprising this has caused some alarm.

On November 22 the World Health Organization requested information from China about this surge. Chinese health authorities have since said the outbreak is due to a number of respiratory pathogens.

So what are the pathogens possibly causing this uptick in respiratory illness? And do we need to be concerned that any have pandemic potential? Let’s take a look.

Mycoplasma

One is a bacteria, Mycoplasma, which has been causing outbreaks of respiratory illness in China since June this year.

Mycoplasma is usually treated in the community with antibiotics and hospitalisation is not common. It can lead to a phenomenon called “walking pneumonia”, which is when the chest x-ray looks much worse than the patient appears.

In Taiwan, however, reports have suggested there’s a high level of antibiotic resistance to Mycoplasma, which may explain why it’s causing more hospital admissions.

Influenza

Influenza fell to very low levels during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic due to masks, physical distancing and other measures. But once things began to return to “normal”, flu infections...

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