Recently the World Health Organization said it had more questions about the recent respiratory illness outbreak in several areas of China. Now, they might have even more questions as that same outbreak seems to have spread to the Netherlands, Denmark and the US. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.
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00:00 Recently, the World Health Organization said it had more questions about the recent respiratory
00:04 illness outbreak in several areas of China.
00:07 Now they might have even more questions, as that same outbreak seems to have spread to
00:11 the Netherlands, Denmark and the US.
00:14 The illness is pneumonia and it seems to be affecting children the most.
00:18 That respiratory condition is marked by inflammation in the lungs and can be caused by either bacteria
00:23 or a virus.
00:24 It is often accompanied by a fever, breathing problems and chest pain.
00:27 Experts say the number of kids with pneumonia is higher than expected.
00:31 So what's going on?
00:32 While myriad viruses can cause pneumonia symptoms, doctors seem to agree that there is no novel
00:37 underlying pathogen that's causing the outbreak, a relief to a world still reeling after several
00:42 years of pandemic.
00:43 In fact, experts point to those very COVID restrictions as a possible culprit for the
00:47 increase in respiratory viruses.
00:50 With a recent study in The Lancet outlining how post-lockdown, there is now a waning mycoplasma-specific
00:55 herd immunity, meaning during the 2020 and 2021 isolation periods, we lost our exposure
01:01 and therefore our community immunity.
01:04 (upbeat music)