Should we be worried about the pneumonia outbreak in China?

Bird flu typically spreads from birds to humans through direct contact, and is one infection that many experts worry can become the next viral pandemic. — AFP

The Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (Promed), which was launched in 1994 by the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID), is the largest publicly-available surveillance system conducting global reporting of infectious diseases.

On Nov 21 (2023), Promed reported an epidemic of undiagnosed pneumonia in China, which overwhelmed children’s hospitals in Beijing, Liaoning and north China.