There is the power of images: videos circulating on social networks showing overcrowded hospitals, crowded corridors and waiting rooms, filled with people wearing protective masks.
Automatically, these images take us back to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, there is an important difference with Covid-19: the HMPV virus was identified almost a quarter of a century ago, in the Netherlands, in 2001.
We are therefore not facing a new disease originating from China or isolated to this country. In Germany, according to the RKI health agency, around 7% of people with respiratory illnesses at the end of December were infected with this virus.
Symptoms
HMPV, which stands for human metapneumovirus, triggers symptoms similar to those of the flu: fever, headache, cough and runny nose.
These symptoms disappear “last about two to five days and go away on their own”notes the American Lung Association (ALA), children under five and the elderly are more affected.
The NGO classifies HMPV among the “main causes of acute respiratory infection” in the world.
As with the flu, the virus is transmitted when you touch an infected surface, or through droplets when a sick person coughs or sneezes.
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As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes, “After the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, there were more serious developments of HMPV infections in young children in many countries, such as the United States but also the United Kingdom”. The Frankfurt daily speaks of an effect of “catch-up”as newborns during the pandemic have not been exposed to pathogens as much due to stricter hygiene conditions. So they didn’t develop as many antibodies.
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The spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeks to reassure. During a press conference on January 3, she recalled that “the sharp increases” respiratory infections are legion “in the Northern Hemisphere” in winter. She assured that “diseases appear to be less severe and spread on a smaller scale than in the previous year”concluding that the“you can travel to China in complete safety”.
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