Experts suggest the outbreak in China may have been partly driven by bugs resistant to antibiotics. Hospitals in northern China and Beijing have seen thousands of children coming down with respiratory illnesses, including pneumonia.
When the news first emerged, there were fears a new pathogen could be behind the large numbers of ill children. However, tests have shown that common seasonal respiratory illnesses like bacterial infections, flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and colds were to blame.
The outbreak was named “white lung” because children suffering from the pneumonia had white patches on their lungs. Doctors explained the patches showed areas with denser lung tissue, which can occur when the body fights infections with bacteria like mycoplasma pneumoniae.
Now, experts suggest the surge in mycoplasma pneumoniae infections may have been caused by antibiotic resistance. Research, published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, showed 90 percent of infections with this bacterium are now resistant to common antibiotics in China.
When antibiotics are used to target bacterial infections, some bacteria may mutate and become resistant to the drugs’ effects. These bacteria can then multiply rapidly, prompting a resistant strain to emerge.
Experts often attribute the overuse of antibiotics to the risk of this happening. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is often treated with the antibiotic azithromycin.
However, major overprescription of this drug could have rendered it mostly ineffective. This leaves doctors with fewer treatment options.
Dr Yin Yudong, an infectious disease doctor at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, told a local publication: “We have to take various measures to curb antibiotic drug resistance. Otherwise, we risk having no treatments for children.”
Previously, doctors have also suggested China’s spike in infections could be due to lifting Covid restrictions. CNN wellness medical expert Dr Leana Wen explained that China lifted its mitigation measures later than most other countries, which could explain the current spike.
She said: “It makes sense that, in the first full winter since ending “zero Covid,” they would experience a rise in respiratory illnesses like that which much of the world experienced.
“In particular, kids who otherwise would have gotten exposed to several infections a year didn’t get sick. When mitigation measures were lifted, contagious illnesses tore through schools and daycares, leading to a surge in infections among children and thus also an increase in those who required hospitalisation.”