The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on 7 Dec refuted media reports that claimed that AIIMS Delhi has detected seven bacterial cases linked to the recent surge in pneumonia cases in China and termed the news report "ill-informed" and "misleading".

In a statement, the Ministry said: "A recent media report in a national daily has claimed that AIIMS Delhi has detected seven bacterial cases linked to the recent surge in pneumonia cases in China. The news report is ill-informed and provides misleading information."

The Ministry clarified that these seven cases have no link 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," it said.

It further said that since January 2023, "no mycoplasma pneumonia" was detected in the 611 samples tested at the Department of Microbiology, AIIMS Delhi as a part of ICMR's multiple respiratory pathogen surveillance, which included mainly severe acute respiratory illness (SARI, which comprised about 95 per cent of these cases) by real-time PCR.

The Health Ministry further said that mycoplasma pneumonia is the most common bacterial cause of community-acquired pneumonia. It is the reason for nearly 15-30 per cent of all such infections.

"Such a surge has not been reported from any part of India," the Ministry clarified. It also said that it is in touch with state health authorities and is keeping a close watch on the situation every day.