The Netherlands is currently witnessing a puzzling surge in pneumonia cases among kids, becoming the second country to detect an outbreak like this within a week.
The Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), based in Utrecht, about 25 miles south of Amsterdam, has reported that 80 out of 100,000 children between 5 and 14 years old have come down with pneumonia in the past week.
This marks the highest number of pneumonia cases recorded by NIVEL in recent years. At the peak of the 2022 flu season, when pneumonia cases were most widespread, there were 60 recorded cases per 100,000 children in this age group.
A news outlet in the Netherlands has indicated that neither NIVEL nor the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Dutch equivalent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), could provide an explanation for the rise in pneumonia cases.
Alarming reports of mysterious pneumonia cases have also emerged from China. Last week, it was revealed that hospitals in Beijing and the province of Liaoning saw a surge in children with pneumonia.
Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization that no new pathogens were discovered in the outbreak. Instead, the sicknesses were attributed to known seasonal viruses like the flu and RSV, as well as the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
Authorities suggested that the stringent COVID measures, lifted at the end of 2022, left the population susceptible to these annual viruses. Now, during the first flu season since the relaxation of the nation’s strict COVID restrictions, the population is being overwhelmed by the usual bugs.
Nevertheless, COVID-related measures have been absent in the Netherlands for some time, making it unclear what could have caused such a drastic increase in cases this year.
However, there are concerns that Chinese officials might be concealing the early stages of an epidemic. The nation was heavily criticized for its initial response to the discovery of COVID-19 almost exactly four years ago, and the current situation is reminiscent of the past.
