Getty PicturesIn current weeks, scenes of hospitals in China overrun with masked individuals have made their rounds on social media, sparking worries of one other pandemic.
Beijing has since acknowledged a surge in circumstances of the flu-like human metapneumovirus (HMPV), particularly amongst youngsters, and it attributed this to a seasonal spike.
However HMPV shouldn’t be like Covid-19, public well being consultants have mentioned, noting that the virus has been round for many years, with nearly each baby being contaminated by their fifth birthday.
Nevertheless, in some very younger youngsters and other people with weakened immune techniques, it will possibly trigger extra severe sickness. Here’s what it’s essential to 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 via direct contact between individuals or when somebody touches surfaces contaminated with it.
Signs for most individuals embody cough, fever and nasal congestion.
The very younger, together with youngsters below two, are most weak to the virus, together with these with weakened immune techniques, together with the aged and people with superior most cancers, says Hsu Li Yang, an infectious ailments 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 circumstances rising in China?
Like many respiratory infections, HMPV is most energetic throughout late winter and spring – some consultants say it is because the viruses survive higher within the chilly they usually move extra simply from one individual to a different as individuals keep indoors extra usually.
In northern China, the present HMPV spike coincides with low temperatures which might be anticipated to final till March.
Actually 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 enhance seen in winter,” she mentioned.
Information from well being authorities within the US and UK exhibits that these nations, too, have been experiencing a spike in HMPV circumstances since October final yr.
Is HMPV like Covid-19? How apprehensive ought to we be?
Fears of a Covid-19 fashion pandemic are overblown, the consultants mentioned, noting that pandemics are sometimes attributable to novel pathogens, which isn’t the case for HMPV.
HMPV is globally current and has been round for many years. This implies individuals internationally have “a point of present immunity as a result of earlier publicity”, Dr Hsu mentioned.
“Virtually each baby can have no less than one an infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday and we will 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 total, I do not suppose there may be presently any indicators of a extra severe international difficulty.”
Nonetheless, Dr Hsu advises customary basic precautions akin to sporting a masks in crowded locations, avoiding crowds the place doable if one is at greater danger of extra extreme sickness from respiratory virus infections, practising good hand hygiene, and getting the flu vaccine.