Masked crowds massed in front of supposedly overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums, an apparently new respiratory virus singled out… Five years after the outbreak of a mysterious “viral pneumonia” in Wuhan, the idea of the return of a respiratory epidemic wreaking havoc in China is gaining momentum on social networks. With misinformation and distorted images on one side and legitimate concern on the other.
These same publications would have identified the culprit: human metapneumovirus (MPVh). Let us be reassured, if the number of cases of infections it causes has indeed increased in recent weeks in China, the national and international health authorities have been keen to delay this outbreak of concern. Libé takes stock.
What is this virus?
The human metapneumovirus is one of the many respiratory viruses that return every year, between winter and spring. A Dutch team identified it in 2001 – and estimated that it had already been circulating for at least forty years. It is also a cousin of another well-known pathogen:
Health
