Why doctors are not panicking over HMP virus cases in Bengaluru – or the China outbreak

India’s health ministry on Monday confirmed two cases of the human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, in Karnataka – two babies were found infected with the virus at a hospital in Bengaluru.

This comes weeks after China reported a surge in hospitalisation of children in its northern region due to the virus.

Doctors and experts Scroll spoke to advised against panicking about a Covid-19-like virus. They pointed out that the Bengaluru cases are not the “first cases” of the virus – as is being reported by several news channels.

The HMPV is not a new virus, they said, and is commonly reported within India. Both babies have no history of travelling abroad, which indicates that the cases are not linked with the surge in China, the health ministry has said.

The HMPV is also less lethal than the novel coronavirus that first spread five years ago in Wuhan in China.

The Chinese government has labelled the current rise in cases as a winter-related occurrence. The World Health Organisation is yet to put out a public alert on the HPMV cases in China.

It is important to understand that HMPV is nothing like COVID-19, since we have all likely been exposed to it before, unlike the case for COVID-19 which was a novel virus. (5/6)— Gautam Menon...

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