Newsroom
Danish health officials have officially declared an epidemic due to a surge in cases caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae, the same bacteria linked to a recent outbreak in China. The Statens Serum Institut (SSI), a government-funded research institute in Copenhagen, announced the epidemic, noting a significant increase in respiratory infections with Mycoplasma pneumoniae since the summer.
"In the past five weeks, the number of new cases has increased significantly, and we are now seeing significantly more cases than usual, and there is widespread infection throughout the country,” stated Hanne-Dorthe Emborg, M.D., senior SSI researcher. Over the last week, Denmark reported 541 new cases of M. pneumoniae, marking a three-fold increase from five weeks earlier.
While Mycoplasma pneumoniae is globally recognized, the recent surge in Denmark follows patterns disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The infection typically reached epidemic levels in Denmark every four years before the pandemic. The heightened attention comes in the wake of a similar outbreak in China, where children’s hospitals in Beijing and the Liaoning province have been grappling with a surge in pneumonia cases among the youth.
[Information sourced from the Messenger.com]
