Images of crowded hospitals, overwhelmed medical staff and patients struggling to breathe. Enough to bring back memories of Covid-19 for some, almost five years to the day after China declared the first death from the pandemic. While some media are talking about a new unknown virus and Internet users are warning about the risk of a pandemic, RFI takes stock of what we know about HMPV, already well known to the scientific community.
Patients unable to breathe, security guards struggling to keep calm in a Chinese hospital, a man struggling to get out the word “ doctor » from his mouth… If we are content with a reading of X, it is difficult not to fear a return of the “pandemic 2.0”.
Especially since the media in India, for example, are counting new cases of this disease with a barbaric name: human metapneumovirus (MPVh or HMPV). Other media, such as South African television sistancespeak of a “ mysterious virus “. All these images from Chine suggest that we are heading straight towards a disaster scenario.
A virus identified in 2001
However, nothing new or even worrying, according to the WHO: “ It has quite an unusual name, so that may have sparked some interest. But this is not a new virus, it was first identified in 2001, explains Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the Geneva organization. It has been present in the human population for some time now. It is an ordinary virus that circulates in winter and spring… »
The symptoms, too, are those of a classic respiratory disease. For most sufferers, recovery is simple; patients at risk are children and the elderly. The human population has been exposed to it for decades, which implies a certain level of herd immunity. As Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, told AFP, “ almost every child will have at least one HMPV infection before their fifth birthday ».
If the Chinese authorities do indeed report an increase in cases, it would remain very limited and above all usual at this time of the year. Kan Biao, head of infectious diseases at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged an increase in the detection of respiratory infectious diseases, but ” of a magnitude and intensity […] lower than last year ».
-Influenza A, Covid-19are also spreading, particularly in northern China, a region with particularly harsh winters. Margaret Harris relieves any tension or panic in Chinese hospitals: “ Authorities report that hospital occupancy rates are actually lower than usual, they are currently lower than last year and there has been no declaration of a state of emergency. This is very important to note, there was no declaration of a state of emergency. »
An outing in direct response to the rumors spreading on social networks.
Fake news in abundance
The trauma of the pandemic, very present in everyone’s minds, has given rise to a litany of false news on social networks: state of emergency declared by health authorities, mortality rate of 43% or even caregivers in the outfit of omnipresent blue protection during the pandemic.
Our colleagues from France 24 have identified three incorrect information about HMPV : if the images of patients seen several million times seem real and to have been filmed at the Tianjin hospital, there is nothing to attest to a supposed hospital panic. As for the mortality rate of 43%, it would correspond to a study carried out on patients with leukemia who had received a transplant. Finally, the images of caregivers in their caregiver outfits date from the Covid-19 pandemic.
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