
In current weeks, scenes of hospitals in China overrun with masked folks have made their rounds on social media, sparking worries of one other pandemic.
Beijing has since acknowledged a surge in instances of the flu-like human metapneumovirus (HMPV), particularly amongst youngsters, and it attributed this to a seasonal spike.
However HMPV isn’t like Covid-19, public well being consultants have mentioned, noting that the virus has been round for many years, with virtually each baby being contaminated by their fifth birthday.
Nevertheless, in some very younger youngsters and other people with weakened immune programs, it may possibly trigger extra critical sickness. Here’s what it’s essential know.
What’s HMPV and the way does it unfold?
HMPV is a virus that can result in a gentle higher respiratory tract an infection – virtually indistinguishable from flu – for most individuals.
First recognized within the Netherlands in 2001, the virus spreads by means of direct contact between folks or when somebody touches surfaces contaminated with it.
Signs for most individuals embody cough, fever and nasal congestion.
The very younger, together with youngsters underneath two, are most weak to the virus, together with these with weakened immune programs, together with the aged and people with superior most cancers, says Hsu Li Yang, an infectious illnesses doctor in Singapore.
If contaminated, a “small however vital proportion” among the many immunocompromised will develop extra extreme illness the place the lungs are affected, with wheezing, breathlessness and signs of croup.
“Many would require hospital care, with a smaller proportion prone to dying from the an infection,” Dr Hsu mentioned.
Why are instances rising in China?
Like many respiratory infections, HMPV is most energetic throughout late winter and spring – some consultants say it’s because the viruses survive higher within the chilly they usually cross extra simply from one particular person to a different as folks keep indoors extra typically.
In northern China, the present HMPV spike coincides with low temperatures which are anticipated to final till March.
The truth is many nations within the northern hemisphere, together with however not restricted to China, are experiencing an elevated prevalence of HMPV, mentioned Jacqueline Stephens, an epidemiologist at Flinders College in Australia.
“Whereas that is regarding, the elevated prevalence is probably going the traditional seasonal improve seen in winter,” she mentioned.
Information from well being authorities within the US and UK reveals that these nations, too, have been experiencing a spike in HMPV instances since October final yr.
Is HMPV like Covid-19? How fearful ought to we be?
Fears of a Covid-19 model pandemic are overblown, the consultants mentioned, noting that pandemics are sometimes brought on by novel pathogens, which isn’t the case for HMPV.
HMPV is globally current and has been round for many years. This implies folks the world over have “some extent of present immunity on account of earlier publicity”, Dr Hsu mentioned.
“Nearly each baby could have at the very least one an infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday and we are able to anticipate to go onto to have a number of reinfections all through life,” says Paul Hunter, a medical professor at College of East Anglia in England.
“So general, I do not assume there may be at the moment any indicators of a extra critical international subject.”
Nonetheless, Dr Hsu advises customary normal precautions similar to sporting a masks in crowded locations, avoiding crowds the place attainable if one is at larger threat of extra extreme sickness from respiratory virus infections, practising good hand hygiene, and getting the flu vaccine.