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An outbreak of pneumonia cases in children in Ohio and Massachusetts have stoked fears that it could lead to a surge of hospitalizations akin to what’s happening in China and parts of Europe, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.
Officials in Warren County, Ohio, released a second statement in as many days to reiterate that the outbreak “is not suspected of being a new/novel respiratory virus but rather a large uptick in the number of typical pediatric pneumonia cases” and not “connected to other outbreaks, either statewide, nationally or internationally.”
Warren County has 145 reported cases — meeting its definition of an outbreak — in children ages 3 to 14.
“While the number of cases is higher this year, the severity is similar to previous years. Most cases recover at home and are treated with antibiotics,” Warren County said.
Western Massachusetts is seeing an uptick of walking pneumonia cases ahead of the winter season.
“So, this is the season for RSV and we’re seeing a whole lot of it … a lot of kids with, you know, upper viral respiratory infections, cough, runny nose, some fevers, and the thinking with RSV is that it can cause lower viral respiratory infections, so they get spread to your lungs,” Dr. John Kelley in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, told Western Mass News.
The CDC told the Daily Mail that nationally speaking, “nothing is out of the ordinary.”
In China, thousands of children have reportedly been hospitalized with a mystery pneumonia, according to the Daily Mail. Chinese officials have said it’s the country’s “exit wave” from the COVID pandemic, according to the report.
In Europe, the Netherlands and Denmark also reported spikes in pneumonia being attributed to mycoplasma, according to the report.
Mark Swanson | editorial.swanson@newsmax.com
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.