Multiple international reports in the past week have indicated that hospitals in China are experiencing a surge in the number of patients facing pneumonia or other respiratory conditions, prompting the Chinese government to issue a public notice that traveling to the country is “safe” and the situation is typical for the dead of winter.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control (CDC) in a public statement reported this weekend specifically addressed the spread of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV), a pathogen that causes respiratory disease and, in vulnerable patients, pneumonia. It suggested that citizens take particularly care to protect infants, the elderly, and those with conditions that leave them susceptible to severe respiratory disease.
“Children, immunocompromised populations and the elderly are susceptible and they are more likely to be co-infected with other respiratory viruses,” the CDC stated, according to India’s Economic Times. “HMPV often causes common cold symptoms, manifested as cough, fever, nasal congestion and wheezing, but sometimes it can result in bronchitis and pneumonia in severe cases.”
HMPV is reportedly circulating in China alongside influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), Wuhan coronavirus, and several other common respiratory diseases, a situation typical for winter in the Northern Hemisphere. HMPV has been known to infect humans since 2001 and been diagnosed around the world.
The situation at press time appears similar to that in the 2023-2024 winter season, when social media footage of overwhelmed hospitals in the country caused fears that another novel pathogen could emerge out of China, just as the Wuhan coronavirus, officially named SARS-CoV-2, did in late 2019. The Chinese government insisted in 2023 that respiratory disease cases in the country had surged on the back of several known pathogens – with no evidence of any novel disease spreading – including the bacterial infection mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP). Ultimately, as the weather warmed, cases of respiratory infection declined.
The crowded conditions in Chinese hospitals this year have made international headlines, particularly in neighboring India, where major media outlets have published alarming headlines such as “Is the World Ready for the Next Pandemic?”
The previous pandemic the headline referred to began in Wuhan, central China, in late 2019. The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 had never before been known to infect humans but was identified as similar to the coronavirus responsible for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which caused a deadly global outbreak beginning in Asia in 2002. It was named after this pathogen, SARS-CoV-1. A Chinese government document obtained by the South China Morning Post indicated that the first confirmed case of Wuhan coronavirus infection was documented on November 17, 2019.
The virus spread out of Wuhan and caused a pandemic that, according to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), has killed over 7 million people since. The Chinese government was initially elusive with information on the spread and went as far as to suggest to the W.H.O. that the virus was not transmissible from human to human, claim the W.H.O. amplified in January 2020 despite having received a message from the government of Taiwan suggesting that patients were being put in isolation to prevent the spread of the disease. Beijing has yet to offer information leading to a clear understanding of the origins of SARS-CoV-2, prompting the W.H.O. to demand more information on the five-year anniversary in late December of the public health emergency.
The murky situation surrounding the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has fueled concerns in India and elsewhere in Asia about the increase in respiratory disease cases apparent in China. Among the countries heightening public health monitoring are reportedly Cambodia and Taiwan, in addition to India.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry fielded a question on Friday about the Indonesian Ministry of Health issuing a statement on Chinese public health concerns.
Masked children, accompanied by adults, wait to be seen by medical staff at the pediatric department of a hospital in Hangzhou, eastern China’s Zhejiang province, on January 6, 2025. Beijing has acknowledged a surge in cases of the flu-like human metapneumovirus (HMPV), especially among children. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
“Respiratory infections tend to peak during the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters. “The diseases appear to be less severe and spread on a smaller scale compared with the previous year. I can assure you that the Chinese government cares about the health of Chinese citizens and foreigners in China.”
“It is safe to travel in China,” she reiterated.
Chinese officials believe that, even as cases surge this year, the total number of affected people would be “smaller” than during the 2023-2024 winter illness season, which was the first full season in which China had ended its “zero-covid” policy of imprisoning millions of people in their homes in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease. The surge in respiratory diseases during the last season – prominently including hospitalized cases of MPP that raised international alarm – prompted the Chinese government to send mass “disinfection” teams to the streets wearing hazmat suits and mandate that citizens wear sanitary masks in public, raising concerns of another global crisis.
So many children became sick in late 2023 that hospitals expanded their pediatric wings to include “study areas” for parents to be able to force their hospitalized children to do schoolwork.
“I did not intend to let my kid do homework here. But seeing that the studying atmosphere is so good in the hospital, I pushed my kid to do his homework too,” a parent said to Chinese state media at the time, according to the Morning Post at the time.
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