What you should know about new respiratory HMPV

Discovered in 2001, the virus can lead to upper and lower respiratory disease in people of all ages

After five years of the Covid-19 pandemic, China is currently reeling under the new respiratory the Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV). Data from the Chinese CDC, in late December, showed that “the positive rate of HMPV in cases aged 14 and below has recently fluctuated and increased,” China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported.

What is HMPV?
HMPV, discovered in 2001, comes in the Pneumoviridae family along with the Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). However, serological studies have shown that it has existed in humans for more than 60 years and is distributed all over the world.

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The virus can lead to upper and lower respiratory disease in people of all ages. Young children, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems are majorly affected.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms commonly associated with HMPV include cough, fever, nasal congestion, and shortness of breath.

Li Tongzeng, a chief doctor from the Department of Respiratory and Infectious Diseases at Beijing You’an Hospital, Capital Medical University said that HMPV can be transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets, and people-to-people contact, such as handshakes, or touching an object contaminated with the virus, the CCTV reported.

It has an incubation period of between three to five days. Wearing a mask, washing hands frequently, and increasing immunity can help prevent the disease. Experts are also warning against using antivirals for HMPV.

In a recent interview with the state-backed National Business Daily, a respiratory expert at a Shanghai hospital warned the public against blindly using antiviral drugs to fight human metapneumovirus, for which there is no vaccine but whose symptoms resemble those of a cold.

HMPV was detected in 2023 in the Netherlands, Britain, Finland, Australia, Canada, the US, and China.