“White lung syndrome” from China alarmed European experts

Officials in Beijing raised fears of a new pandemic last week after sounding the alarm about an unusual surge in cases among children, the Daily Mail reported.

Chinese authorities have ruled out a new virus, instead blaming a winter surge of respiratory illnesses including a virus called mycoplasma pneumoniae.

Since China raised the alarm, mico cases have risen sharply in the Netherlands, Denmark and parts of the US.

Leading experts have blamed the impact of the Covid lockdown, warning that other countries could suffer a “bad year”. Measures to combat the pandemic have stopped the spread of common viruses and weakened the population’s immunity.

The UK could see a surge in cases of fungal infections in the coming weeks, scientists have said.

The bacterial infection usually causes a flu-like illness, sometimes called “walking pneumonia” because of its mild form. Children are especially vulnerable, the Daily Mail notes.

Professor Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading, told MailOnline: “Because we have a small physical gap with Europe, we could get away with it this season. The important point is that this kind of ‘recovery’ should be expected, and the public health system should know about this.”

The expert added that it is unlikely that the recent surge in fungal infections is due to a new contagious or more deadly strain.

Instead, Professor Jones attributed the wave sweeping the world to a lack of immunity in the population following lockdowns and anti-Covid measures. Masks, social distancing, improved hand hygiene and not mixing people led to a reduction in the spread of other non-Covid pathogens in the early years of the pandemic, leading to a concept called “immune debt.”

Viruses can hit harder than usual if a significant portion of the population has not been exposed to the virus and therefore has not built up defenses against it.

Many countries, including the UK and US, have seen an increase in viral winter pathogens such as influenza and RSV since lockdown.

In the case of the myco virus, Professor Jones said: “Circulating cases would trigger a build-up of immunity in the population, particularly children at school, which would then contain the spread of cases for a couple of subsequent years, only to restart the cycle a few years later when immunity has decreased. Restrictions on movement (due to quarantine) would interfere with what would be a natural cycle of immunization.’

That means there will be a “more susceptible population” in the next natural surge, he said.

Professor Jones added: “Based on this reasoning, we should expect something similar in most countries that have gone through lockdown, although it is not known when the surge will occur.”

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, said “myco is somewhat unusual” compared to other respiratory pathogens.

The virus itself causes large waves every few years due to weakened immunity, he said.

He added: “This is probably because immunity against mycoplasma pneumoniae lasts somewhat longer than immunity against influenza or Covid, although we still don’t know how long immunity lasts.”

Professor Hunter added that the latest global wave appears to have occurred in 2019/2020, just before Covid.

This, combined with the slower transmission of mycoplasma pneumoniae compared to other winter viruses, may have led to the current “surge” of cases seen in many countries.

The expert also said the outbreak could be worse in China due to Beijing’s stricter and longer Covid quarantine policies. “This is the first full winter in China where there are no general Covid restrictions,” he noted. “Last year we had our first open winter and we saw a heavy flu and RSV season. So China had another year for further weakening of the population’s immunity to these infections, which is why I suspect this year is particularly bad for them.”

Beijing previously reported an increase in the incidence of influenza-like illnesses since mid-October, the Daily Mail recalls. But the outbreak only started making headlines in early November, when local media reported that hospitals were overwhelmed by the number of cases. The wave was accompanied by chilling images of Chinese workers in hazmat suits disinfecting premises and public health warnings to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, reminiscent of the early days of the Covid pandemic.

Like Denmark, which recently reported an epidemic, the UK typically experiences a surge of mycoplasma pneumoniae every three to four years as part of a normal cycle.

Data compiled by the UK Health Protection Agency suggests a small spike in cases was recorded at the start of 2020, and before that in 2016 and 2012.

It comes as more areas in the U.S. begin reporting their own wave of childhood pneumonia cases.

The state of Massachusetts has now joined Ohio in reporting a sharp rise, with the latter US region reporting 142 cases identified since August, a figure health officials called “extremely high”.

Although there were initial concerns that the outbreak in China could be caused by a new pathogen, they have gradually begun to subside.

The wave of cases sparked global concern due to a perceived lack of transparency on China’s part when Covid was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019, shortly before the virus swept the globe.

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) asked China for more data on the outbreak of pneumonia in children.

It followed the UN agency’s initial and unusually public request for information from Beijing early last month.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, said the agency was “monitoring the situation in China” as hospitals across the country remained overwhelmed. Face masks and social distancing are being recommended again in China, in a chilling echo of the early days of Covid. The country’s surge in pneumonia has been dubbed “white lung syndrome” because of the way lung damage appears on medical scans.