A mainland man was infected with influenza and his lungs turned white in just a few days

 Direct translation

Reporter : Li Enzhen / Editor: Zhu Xinrui / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2025/02/05/a103955953.html / Image : A hospital bed file photo. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

On 5 February 2025, the news about "a man was infected with influenza and had white lungs in just a few days" was on the hot search list, attracting attention.

According to Chao News, Mr. Liu (pseudonym) initially felt a slight cough and sputum, thinking it was just a common cold, and did not take it too seriously. He went to the community hospital for treatment, and after taking some conventional cold medicine, he still felt dizzy and weak, and the cough and sputum seemed to be worse than before.

After just a few days, Mr. Liu fell ill. Not only did the symptoms of coughing and sputum not improve, but he also had shortness of breath. He came to the outpatient clinic of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University in a weak state.

The test results showed that Mr. Liu was infected with severe influenza A, and both of his lungs had very serious ground-glass exudates, which is the so-called "white lungs."

Lv Qun, chief physician and director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, said that influenza is not as many people think, "a fever for two days and a few medicines will cure it."

Mainland netizens said, "COVID-19 is COVID-19, what's the H1N1 flu?" "It's COVID-19, stop talking about influenza, COVID-19 is not gone." "People's physical fitness has dropped drastically after COVID-19." "It's very fast, my son developed pneumonia after a fever for one or two days." "A relative also died of lung cancer! Alas!"

"Last month, our whole family also had H1N1 flu. Later, I chatted with my brother and sister-in-law and learned that the characteristic of this year's H1N1 flu is that it is easy to turn into pneumonia and even lung cancer. A 36-year-old doctor in the radiology department of their hospital died because of this. He had a high fever for two days and then developed lung cancer. He was rescued in his own hospital, a provincial tertiary hospital, and was saved for seven days with ECMO. "

On the second day of the Chinese New Year (30 January), Liang Youcheng, a 27-year-old actor from the mainland, died of an acute illness. People familiar with the matter said that he died of central nervous system infection. He initially thought he had a common cold, but he did not expect his condition to deteriorate rapidly.

According to a report by Xiaoxiang Morning News on 20 January 2025, at the end of December 2024, 67-year-old Quzhou native Li Shu (pseudonym) began to cough a little and occasionally had some white sputum. Within two days, he started to have a low fever again.

In the morning of 5 January 2025, Li Shu felt chest tightness and difficulty breathing after getting up. "I can't breathe, let's go to the hospital!" The results of the local hospital examination showed that Li Shu's respiratory pathogen nucleic acid test was positive for influenza A virus, and the chest CT scan considered multiple infections in both lungs, which was severe pneumonia.

People in many places revealed that the new wave of influenza epidemics in the mainland is coming fiercely, and the emergency clinics and small clinics of hospitals are full.

Xu Feng (pseudonym), a resident of Dalian, told NTD a few days ago, "I'm hospitalized. My throat hurts and is burning. Some children have difficulty breathing, and no medicine works. For diseases like covid, the people know about it, but they are not allowed to talk about it. The community hospital is full. There are also quite a lot of deaths. There are funerals every two or three days. I saw several neighbours pass away."

Ms. Hu, a resident of Xi'an: "There are many people in the hospital. They can't get treatment or get an appointment. There are two or three serious cases in our community. They are in their 50s, 60s, and 70s and are taken away by ambulance."

Mr. Han, a villager in Linyi, Shandong, said, "This epidemic is not easy to treat. There are queues at the health center. The small hospitals in the townships are full. There are queues for injections. It costs 100 to 80 yuan to get a drip. It takes many days, more than ten days, and it is not easy to treat. There are several deaths in one village, some in their 40s, 50s, and 60s."