Tag: Hospitals

Illness Surge in China Is Not From a Novel Pathogen, Data Suggests

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The World Health Organization said that China had shared data about a recent surge in respiratory illnesses in children, one day after the agency said it was seeking information about the possibility of undiagnosed pneumonia cases there. The Chinese data indicated “no detection of any unusual or novel pathogens,” according to a W.H.O. statement on Thursday. The data, which included laboratory results from infected children, indicated that the rise in cases was a result of known viruses and bacteria, such as influenza and mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes usually…

W.H.O. Asks China for Details on Surge of Respiratory Illness in Children

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The World Health Organization has formally requested that China share detailed information about a recent increase in respiratory illnesses, citing unconfirmed media reports of undiagnosed pneumonia in children. China has been reporting a jump in respiratory illnesses for months. Chinese media reports have described long lines at pediatric hospitals, and doctors have said that this year’s wave appeared to be more severe than those of previous years. Chinese officials have attributed the illnesses to known pathogens such as influenza, SARS-CoV-2 — the virus behind the coronavirus pandemic — and mycoplasma…

Deaths of Seniors in Hospital Fire Point to China’s Elder Care Shortfall

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BEIJING — The hospital in southern Beijing advertised itself as specializing in vascular tumors, especially benign birthmarks that often appear in infants. But when a fire broke out there last month, killing at least 29 people, many of the victims had been there for another reason: They were older people with disabilities receiving nursing care, some of them staying at the private hospital for months or even years, even though it was not licensed as a provider of long-term elder care. The tragedy at Changfeng Hospital — the deadliest fire…

Fire breaks out in Beijing hospital wing housing critically ill people – video

Chin@Strategy

People trapped in a Beijing hospital apparently tied bedsheets together and escaped by climbing out of windows, as seen in videos circulating on social media. The fire at Changfeng hospital has killed at least 29 people and forced dozens to evacuate. Twenty-six of those who died were hospital patients, according to local officials, who added that the blaze occurred in a wing housing critically ill patients. Authorities blocked access to the hospital on Wednesday, while announcing an investigation into the incident The Guardian

Death Toll in Beijing Hospital Fire Soars to 29

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Chinese authorities said they have arrested a dozen people in connection with a hospital fire in Beijing that has claimed the lives of at least 29 victims, attributing the blaze to possible negligence after sparks from internal construction ignited flammable paint. At a news conference on Wednesday, officials said most of the deceased were patients at Changfeng Hospital when the fire erupted around midday Tuesday in the southwestern part of Beijing. A nurse, a medical worker and a relative of a patient also died in the fire. Another 21 people…

At least 21 Dead After Fire at Beijing Hospital

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At least 21 people died after a fire erupted in a hospital in Beijing on Tuesday, forcing patients trapped inside to cram up against windows, awaiting rescue, while at least one jumped to a roof below to escape the flames and smoke. The fire appeared to be the deadliest in the Chinese capital in the past two decades. It broke out in an inpatient building of the Changfeng Hospital in the city’s south at just before 1 p.m., and firefighters had largely put out the flames within less than 40…

China’s Cities Are Cutting Health Insurance, and People Are Angry

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Local governments across China, facing a financial tipping point after three years of expensive Covid measures, are forcing abrupt changes on the country’s health care system, squeezing benefits and angering citizens. Thousands of seniors, who are most vulnerable to the cutbacks, converged on municipal parks and other public spaces in recent days to protest the changes. They gathered in the chilly northeastern city of Dalian, in semitropical Guangzhou nearly 1,500 miles away and in Wuhan in central China, where the Covid pandemic began at the end of 2019. One of…

How Health Insurance Works in China, and How It’s Changing

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Almost everyone in China has had at least some health insurance since new policies were introduced a decade ago. Now China has begun pursuing a second wave of changes. The new policies, which have triggered protests in several big cities like Wuhan, are aimed at covering deficits in local employee health insurance plans and reducing inequality between cities and rural areas. Who has health coverage in China? China has two main kinds of health insurance: employee hospitalization insurance and so-called residents insurance. The employee hospitalization insurance is the better of…

This Is What Shanghai’s Covid Outbreak Looks Like

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Shanghai is being gripped by China’s massive Covid wave, leading to a surge in hospitalizations and crowded funeral homes. Local health officials said last week that up to 70 percent of the city’s 26 million residents had been infected, and they expressed confidence that its outbreak had peaked. But many of the city’s hospitals are still overcrowded, particularly with older people. Funeral homes have been inundated with mourners. Infections soared across China late last year, and the government abruptly lifted its strict, but ultimately futile, Covid restrictions in early December.…

China’s Covid Surge Threatens Villages as Lunar New Year Approaches

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The infections in Dadi Village, a corn farming community tucked between verdant hills in China’s remote southwest, started in early December when a handful of young people returned from jobs in big cities. The nearest hospital was an hour away, and few could afford the $7 bus fare there. The village clinic is not equipped with oxygen tanks or even an oximeter to detect if someone’s blood is dangerously deprived of oxygen. It quickly ran out of its stockpile of five boxes of fever medicine, so officials told sick residents…