China has not detected any “unusual or new” pathogens linked to a spike in respiratory illness in the country’s northThe World Health Organization (WHO) announced this on Thursday.

Northern China has seen an increase in “flu-like illnesses” since mid-October, compared with data from the previous three years, the WHO said on Wednesday.

Following the announcement, the UN health agency asked the Asian country for additional information “about an increase in respiratory diseases and outbreaks of pneumonia in children“, as noted in a statement published on the X Network.

Chinese authorities responded “that no unusual or novel pathogens or unusual clinical presentations have been detected, including in Beijing and Liaoning,” the WHO said Thursday.

According to authorities, this is the “cited general increase in respiratory illnesses due to multiple known pathogens,” he added.

The National Health Commission announced this to the press last week The resurgence in respiratory diseases was due to the lifting of anti-Covid restrictions and the circulation of other known pathogens.

The Chinese capital, in the north of the country, is experiencing a cold snap, with temperatures expected to drop well below 0ºC on Friday, according to state media.

Temperatures plummeted in Beijingthe season started with a high incidence of infectious respiratory diseasesDeputy director and epidemiological expert of the Beijing Disease Prevention Center Wang Quanyi told state media.

Beijing “is currently showing a trend of multiple pathogens coexisting,” he said.

“It is winter”

At the children’s hospital of the Capital Institute of Pediatrics in Beijing, journalists from the AFP They saw countless parents with their children in the waiting room.

A mother named Zhang accompanied her nine-year-old son, who she said had pneumonia. “Many children have become ill lately”, he assured.

Agreeing with her was Li Meiling, 42, whose eight-year-old daughter suffered from microplasma pneumonia, a pathogen called causes sore throat, fatigue and fever.

But the mother was not “particularly concerned” about the WHO advice. “It is winter: it is normal that there are more cases of respiratory diseases,” he said.

On November 21, the media and the public disease surveillance system launched ProMED reported outbreaks of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China.

The WHO has therefore requested “additional epidemiological and clinical information, as well as laboratory results from the outbreaks detected in children.”

He also requested “additional information on recent trends in the circulation of known pathogens, in particular influenza, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus responsible for Covid-19), RSV affecting infants and mycoplasma pneumoniaeas well as the level of congestion in the healthcare system,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the organization urged the population to take protective measures, such as getting vaccinated, keeping a distance from sick people, wearing masks or washing hands thoroughly.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the first cases of which were discovered in China at the end of 2019, The WHO accused Beijing of a lack of transparency and cooperation.

The UN health organization and several countries have also denounced this lack of cooperation from China in the investigation into the origins of the pandemic, which has not yet led to definitive conclusions. (JO)