Last Updated on January 5, 2025 by NewsTurkana
WUHAN, China is reportedly being ravaged by a mysterious viral outbreak that is overwhelming some hospitals.
Videos on social media appear to show hospital units overrun with patients in face masks, and parents holding sick children in long lines in pediatric units.
The situation is similar to winter 2022/23 when China was hit with a wave of mycoplasma pneumonia cases, a condition dubbed ‘white lung’, which is also normally mild.
That outbreak was blamed on children having low natural immunity due to the effects of China’s harsh lockdowns and school closure measures aimed at containing Covid.
There have also been unverified reports that crematoriums and funeral homes are being overwhelmed.
The alarming scenes and lack of official commentary have led some to draw similarities to the early days of the Covid outbreak in China.
Local news reports have blamed a little-known virus called human metapneumovirus (HMPV) — which normally causes a mild cold-like illness — for the latest outbreak, though officials have yet to confirm this.
Videos claiming to show overwhelmed hospital units in China started to appear online around New Year’s Eve.
They claim to show hospitals in Hunan — a province in the center of the country — as well as other areas.
Aboluowang News, a US-based news provider covering China, published quotes from a farmer in Hunan province, known as Mr Peng, who said he was caught up in the surge to hospitals.
‘A lot of people have caught colds, and most of them have [illness],’ he said in quotes translated to English.
‘About seven or eight people died this week in this area. Some were in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 40s.’
But the Chinese CDC warned that rates of multiple flu-like illnesses are on the rise.
In its latest report, for the week to December 29, data suggested that 7.2 per cent of outpatient visits to local hospitals in northern provinces were due to a flu-like illness.
