Rises in walking pneumonia cases among children are being reported in Massachusetts and Ohio, as health officials cite alarming data abroad.
Doctors in Massachusetts cite a combination of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — a virus that is not treatable with medicine and kills more than 10,000 Americans each year — and other respiratory illnesses, according to Western Mass News.
In Ohio, the Warren County Health District recorded 142 cases of pneumonia in children since August, which is above the county average, the New York Post reported. Officials do not think it is a new respiratory disease but “rather a large uptick in the number of pneumonia cases normally seen at one time.”
No deaths have been reported and the illnesses are no more severe than in previous years, NBC News reported.
World health officials meanwhile eye concerning numbers in Denmark and China.
Cases of mycoplasma pneumonia have reached epidemic levels in Denmark and contributed to a surge of hospital admissions in China, according to the outlet.
Taiwan’s health ministry said Thursday that older adults, young children and people with poor immunity should avoid travel to mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao because of the rise in respiratory illnesses there, which also include rises in flu, adenovirus and RSV.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been communicating with its colleagues in China “to make sure that we’re understanding the situation there,” its director, Dr. Mandy Cohen, said Thursday at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
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