Like a feeling of déjà vu. “China declares state of emergency as outbreak overwhelms hospitals and crematoriums”warns a tweet from Wednesday January 1, 2025, seen more than seven million times on X. Videos claiming to show the crowds in Chinese hospitals have also multiplied on social networks since mid-December 2024. So, what is really going on?
In his last newsletter national surveillance of acute respiratory infectious diseases, published on January 2, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that several pathologies “are currently showing a general continuing upward trend”. The positivity rate for the influenza virus, for example, increased by 6.2%, between the 51st and 52nd weeks of the year 2024. “The flu is generally in a seasonal epidemic period”explains the institution.
What are the pathologies circulating in China this winter? People hospitalized for acute respiratory infections are mainly affected by “the influenza A virus, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and human metapneumovirus” (or HMPV, for “human metapneumovirus”), specifies the CDC. The level of the flu epidemic “varies among different provinces, with an increase in the North, but remains lower than the previous year”specifies the agency. There Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacteria which according to the High Authority of Health (HAS) is transmitted by spittle and can cause pneumonia, is declining, according to the same source. To protect against these diseases, the CDC recommends that the population take precautions that are well known to the general public: wearing a mask, washing their hands, vaccination.
What about human metapneumovirus? Cough, fever, stuffy nose, sneezing… The symptoms of HMPV are those of winter illnesses. The World Health Organization (WHO), contacted by franceinfo, assures that most cases are “benign” et specifies: “Severe cases can lead to bronchitis or pneumonia, especially in infants, the elderly, and those who are immunocompromised.” People with pre-existing lung conditions, such as asthma, are also at higher risk of complications. To date, there is no vaccine against HMPV. However, “the population is regularly in contact with the virus” due to his seniority, explains to franceinfo Paul Loubet, head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at Nîmes University Hospital (Gard).
Indeed, this metapneumovirus is not mysterious. It was brought to light by Dutch researchers in a study from 2001 and was already circulating in Holland in 1958. “We cannot consider that it is a new virus, Paul Loubet slices. It is a seasonal virus that circulates in winter. Just like the flu. In France, the last peak of HMPV was observed between the end of January and the beginning of March 2024, according to Xavier-Marie Duval, infectious disease specialist at Bichat Claude-Bernard hospital. This virus is “normally not very virulent”explains the specialist. “However, just like the coronaviruses which existed well before Covid and which were also not very virulent, we are never safe from the emergence of a virulent variant”anticipates the doctor to franceinfo.
So, should we be worried? For the moment, neither the Chinese government nor the WHO have declared a state of emergency. Radio France's correspondent in China, Sébastien Berriot, did not notice any abnormal crowds in health establishments, neither at the end of December nor at the beginning of January. The current epidemic situation in China “nothing exceptional”according to him. “Pediatric hospitals are always crowded this time of yearrelate-t-il. Even in normal times, there is a queue all the time.”
Sébastien Berriot warns of videos showing overloaded Chinese hospitals. If some seem recent, “There is [aussi] videos on Western social networks which broadcast catastrophic images dating from 2022″he notes. At that time, China had suddenly lifted health restrictions of its zero Covid policy, causing an explosion of cases in the days and weeks that followed.
This is the case of a video published Saturday January 4, 2025 on TikTok and viewed more than 60,000 times. She wonders if “HMPV is the new Covid” by showing images of overloaded hospitals or the facade of a health establishment. But this video is actually a montage of images broadcast in December 2022 and in January 2023regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. We can also mention this photo showing perfused patients, published on Swiss Radio Television.
Other images are from winter 2023-2024. A video dating from January 5 and viewed more than 145,000 times on TikTok notably takes up, without putting it in context, an image of a masked crowd waiting in front of a children's hospital in Beijing on November 27, 2023, according to Reuters. A winter which was marked by an increase in cases of respiratory diseases in China. The WHO was then concerned and had requested information from the Chinese authorities.
For infectious disease specialist Paul Loubet, the crowded scenes in hospitals are not surprising during this period, including in France. According to a bulletin National Public Health France published on January 2, “the increase in passages [aux urgences] for flu/flu syndrome” continued in week 52 “in all age groups (+53%)”. “In our hospital, for example, it is currently complicated, with an influx of adult patients who come with RSV infections [virus respiratoire syncytial] or the flu”testifies Paul Loubet, about his daily life at the Nîmes University Hospital.
“It is enough for there to be a simultaneous circulation of several viruses, which affect the same populations at risk, to congest hospital services”specifies the doctor. For example, the 2022-2023 winter season was marked by the occurrence of a triple epidemic (flu, Covid-19 and bronchiolitis), according to Public health Francewhich then caused an increase in hospital attendance.
In summary, if China is indeed seeing a general increase in cases of infectious respiratory diseases throughout the country this winter, publications mentioning the establishment of a state of emergency and reporting exceptionally overwhelmed hospitals are unfounded and misleading. .
