'Misleading & Inaccurate': Union Health Ministry Reacts To Claims Linking AIIMS Delhi's Bacterial Cases & Pneumonia In China

The latest Pneumonia cases at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi have no connection to the soaring number of respiratory infections in children in China, read an official statement released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. On Thursday, the health ministry said the press news reports are ill-informed and deliver misleading information. The ministry also denied the media's claims and the link between the two happenings.

In its statement, the ministry said, "It is clarified that these seven cases have no link whatsoever to the recent surge in respiratory infections in children reported from some parts of the world, including China. The seven cases have been detected as a part of an ongoing study at AIIMS Delhi in the six months (April to September 2023) and are no cause for worry."

Since January 2023, no Mycoplasma pneumonia has been detected in the 611 samples tested at the Department of Microbiology, AIIMS Delhi, as part of the ICMR's multiple respiratory pathogen surveillance, which included primarily severe acute respiratory illness (SARI, which accounted for approximately 95 per cent of these cases) by real-time PCR.

The Health Ministry said, "The most common bacterial cause of community-acquired pneumonia is Mycoplasma pneumonia. It is the source of about 15-30 per cent of all such infections. Nowhere in India has such a surge been reported."

The Union Health Ministry further informed that they are in constant touch with the state health authorities and are monitoring the situation daily.