An ‘extremely high’ number of children are being diagnosed with pneumonia in Ohio — which is now the first US state to report an outbreak like the one in China.
Health officials in Warren County, 30 miles north of Cincinnati, said there have been 142 pediatric cases of the condition — dubbed ‘white lung syndrome’ — since August.
‘Not only is this above the county average, it also meets the Ohio Department of Health definition of an outbreak,’ the county’s health department said Wednesday.
The spread of cases has raised fears that an American outbreak of the infection that has overwhelmed hospitals China could hit this winter. Several European countries are battling similar crises.
But a source at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, nationally, ‘nothing is out of the ordinary’.
An ‘ongoing investigation’ is underway in Ohio into what is triggering the wave of illness, but officials do not think it is a new respiratory disease — and instead blame a mixture of several common infections all hitting at once.
Health officials in Warren County, Ohio, are reporting an ‘extremely high’ number of children are being diagnosed with pneumonia. The above image is from a previous outbreak of infectious diseases affecting US hospitals
The above graph shows deaths from pneumonia and flu among children aged under 18 years old since the 2019 to 2020 flu season. It shows that despite reports the current season nationwide is ‘not out of the ordinary’
The above image pictures the lungs during ‘white lung syndrome’ or acute respiratory distress syndrome, which is diagnosed via the white spots or opaque areas appearing in the lungs. The above patient was a 57-year-old man who was infected with the flu and had non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, or a cancer of the white blood cells, back in 2014
Patients so far have tested positive for mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacterial lung infection for which some antibiotics are useless, strep, and adenovirus, a normally benign respiratory infections.
The average age of patients is eight, though some are as young as three.
There are several theories, one of which is that children’s immunity has been weakened by lockdowns, mask-wearing and school closures during the pandemic — leaving them more vulnerable to seasonal illnesses.
Bacterial respiratory infections usually flare up every few years, normally as people are recovering from a wave of flu or other viral illnesses.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections tend to peak every three to seven years, the CDC says, with the illness having not peaked since the Covid pandemic hit in 2020.
Most infections are mild, doctors say, but those who have recently recovered from a respiratory infection are at higher risk.
In a release from the Warren County Health District, officials said: ‘We do not think this is a novel/new respiratory disease, but rather a large uptick in the number of pneumonia cases normally seen at one time.’
It added: ‘As we approach the holiday season, when many of us will be gathering together with family and friends, please remember to take necessary precautions to protect your health.
‘Wash your hands, cover your cough, stay home when ill and stay up to date on vaccines.’
Doctors say patients are mostly suffering from a fever, cough and fatigue.
It is unclear if any deaths have resulted from the illness and officials have not responded to requests for more information.
The county was first alerted to the spike after schools said they were recording more children off sick than normal.
The 142 cases were reported to the county from multiple school districts across their area. There are 12 school districts in Warren County, Ohio.
A spokeswoman for the county health department said this was the first year they had recorded a pneumonia outbreak.
She added that other indicators were showing ‘typical resporatory pathogen [spread] for this time of year’.
CDC data also shows pneumonia fatalities are not surging out of the ordinary for this time of year nationwide.
Data on deaths from pneumonia and the flu among children and teenagers which they record shows the figures are at typical levels for this time of year.
Speaking to local reporters, Warren County’s medical director Dr Clint Koenig said: ‘We have seen hospitalizations [for child pneumonia] tick up in the last couple of weeks so we do ask parents to be vigilant.
‘Our school districts have called in the outbreak starting roughly in August, but really picking up in mid to late October.
‘We’ve also been noticing a lot of cases of kids being absent and the resulting diagnosis being pneumonia.’
A source at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said their data showed childhood pneumonia levels in other states were following ‘seasonal trends’.
‘Nothing is flagging out of the ordinary, but we are continuing to monitor,’ they said.
It comes after the Netherlands and Denmark also said they were recording mysterious spikes in pneumonia cases, many of which are being attributed in part to mycoplasma.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae normally causes a mild flu-like illness, sometimes called ‘walking pneumonia’. Cases are most common in younger children.
Some antibiotics, such as penicillin, have no effect.
Pictured above is Dr Clint Koenig, who warned that hospitalizations in Warren County, Ohio, have been rising over the last few week
Children and their parents wait at an outpatient area in a children’s hospital in Beijing as the city’s hospitals are overwhelmed with cases of a new virus. There are fears the disease may also have reached the US
Footage has emerged of workers in Hazmat suits spraying classrooms allegedly in the city of Sanhe, about 40 miles east of Beijing. It was posted by activists based in New York who said the footage was recent
Pictured above are more snippets from the footage, including a worker being filmed spraying disinfectant inside a classroom
Strep is a common cause of sore throat and is normally diagnosed among children aged five to 15 years old — although it can be treated with antibiotics.
And adenovirus, which causes symptoms similar to the common cold and was thought to be behind a spike in childhood hepatitis cases last year.
China has been recording a surge in childhood cases of pneumonia since May which only came to light last month after it was reported in Taiwan.
Health officials reported the cases to ProMED — the same system where Covid was first reported — saying there was a mystery pneumonia in the country.
Thousands of children are reported to have been taken to hospitals while sick in north and eastern areas of the country including Beijing, Shanghai and the province of Liaoning.
Chinese officials have insisted the wave of infections is not being caused by a new disease but instead is the country’s ‘exit wave’ from the pandemic.
Lockdowns weakened the immunity of children because they were not exposed to the normal ‘good’ germs required for building a strong immune system.
The agency came under fire yesterday from Congress, which demanded that they hand over all their data on the mysterious pneumonia outbreak.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a scathing letter to the new CDC director Dr Mandy Cohen demanding action.
They also said the CDC should start to issue bi-weekly updates on the state of affairs in China.
They wrote: ‘If the CDC is to regain credibility with the American people, it must be transparent and forthcoming with the information it has on public helth threats facing our nation.’