A puzzling increase in pneumonia cases among children has been reported in another country, with the Netherlands becoming the second nation this week to witness such an outbreak.

The Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), located in Utrecht, approximately 25 miles south of Amsterdam, has disclosed that 80 out of every 100,000 children between the ages of 5 and 14 contracted pneumonia last week.

This marks the most significant pneumonia outbreak recorded by NIVEL in recent years. During the peak of the 2022 flu season, when pneumonia cases were prevalent, there were 60 documented cases per 100,000 children in this age group.

Despite inquiries by a Dutch news outlet, neither NIVEL nor the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Dutch equivalent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), could provide an explanation for the rising pneumonia cases, The Messenger reported.

Simultaneously, mysterious pneumonia cases in China have raised concerns. Reports from last week indicate that children’s hospitals in Beijing and the province of Liaoning are grappling with an influx of children diagnosed with pneumonia.

Chinese officials have assured the World Health Organization that no new pathogens have been identified in the outbreak.

Instead, they attribute the illnesses to known seasonal viruses like the flu and RSV, along with the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae.

Nevertheless, some apprehensions persist that China might be concealing the early stages of an epidemic.

This situation draws parallels to the nation’s criticized initial response to the discovery of COVID-19 almost exactly four years ago, leading some to view the current developments as reminiscent of the past.

Written by B.C. Begley