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Vietnamese healthcare watchdog asks for official information about an increase in respiratory illnesses in China |
After the World Health Organization has lately officially requested that China provide detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine which is responsible for carrying out the International Health Regulations (IHR) contacted WHO representatives and its peers in China to ask for related official information.
At the same time, the Department of Preventive Medicine also sent a letter to the WHO representative and the US CDC Office in Vietnam requesting to provide official information related to the increase in cases of respiratory diseases in China.
According to a representative of the Department of Preventive Medicine, the unit is continuing to coordinate closely with WHO, the US CDC and international organizations to update information on the respiratory disease development in China. Moreover, it proposed appropriate epidemic preventive measures to the Ministry of Health.
Simultaneously, it coordinated with relevant units to strengthen communication work to raise people’s awareness to warn people neither to be subjective or negligent nor to be confused or overanxious but people should proactively implement personal preventive measures against the disease.
Previously on November 22, WHO officially requested China to provide detailed information on the increase in respiratory diseases as well as additional epidemiological, clinical information and test results from clusters of pneumonia cases in children in this world's second-most-populous country through the International Health Regulations (IHR) mechanism.
According to WHO, Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission have recently held a press conference to report an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases in the country. The global health agency said Chinese authorities attributed the increase to the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae (a common bacterial infection which typically affects younger children), respiratory syncytial virus, and the virus that causes Covid-19.
In particular, recently, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) - the largest publicly-available surveillance system conducting global reporting of infectious disease outbreaks - reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China. It is unclear if these are associated with the overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities or separate events.
