Human metapneumovirus, one of the respiratory pathogens that has caused an infectious outbreak in China, is a virus described in 2001 but that has lived together for at least fifty years and that slights slightly in the vast majority of cases with Symptoms similar to common cold. Since, for the moment, a new mutation of this virus has not been identified, it is considered that it lacks pandemic potential.
Lo explica la microbióloga Concepción Gimeno, portavoz de la Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica (SEIMC), quien aleja cualquier tipo de alerta ante el metapneumovirus humano (HMPV, por sus siglas en inglés), A common and global respiratory virus In front of which most have already developed antibodies.
90% of those of people over ten years old have antibodies, we have passed it throughout childhood, in many cases asymptomatic or thinking that it was a typical cold of a child who is in the nursery, ”he says.
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China’s infectious outbreak
The World Health Organization (WHO) has explained that, according to the information received from Chinese authorities, the pathogens that have been detected in the infectious outbreak in the north of the country are respiratory syncitial viruses (VRS), metapneumovirus human (mpvh), The Sars-Cov-2 (cause of the COVID) and, above all, that of the seasonal flu.
The levels of respiratory infections notified in China are within the usual for the winter station, ”said WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris.
However, the fact of being a less known virus than others among the population and that, in addition, there is a metapneumovirus avian has lit some alerts.
The microbiologist explains that metapneumovirus avian is the possible ancestor of human metapneumovirus and that there are now no important outbreaks of this virus. ”
He assures that metapneumovirus is a slow virus, which takes a long time to mutate, and that it is very different from that of the H5N1 avian flu that adapts faster, so it does not have to exist between these two pathogens, “They are two completely different problems”.
Aviar flu, meanwhile, has passed from birds to mammals and from these to humans, although there is still no direct transmission from person to person, a threat that exists and that could cause a pandemic.
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Symptoms and risk groups of human metapneumovirus
Human metapneumovirus is in cough, fever, headache, nasal congestion … as a common cold and only between 1 and 5% of cases are serious when derived from pneumonia, bronchitis or bronchiolitis, according to the service chief also of microbiology of the General Hospital of Valencia.
Risk groups are children between 6 months and 5 years old They have developed antibodies Faced with this infection, but also the elders who lose defenses or immunosuppressed people because of diseases.
It is a childhood virus, it is a virus of nurseries, when children begin to socialize, as with the syncitial respiratory virus, ”explains the specialist.
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How to detect and treat it
PCR diagnostic tests can detect the presence of HMPV.
The usual thing in hospitals is that people with serious infections do the tests of the most common viruses, such as flu A and B, coronavirus and syncitial respiratory, although it can be expanded up to a total of 23 pathogens among which the human metapneumovirus is .
Microbiologists want to identify the different viruses (in patients) because there are some that have pandemic potential, ”says Concepción Gimeno, spokesperson for SEIMC.
And states that sporadic cases are currently being detected, “There is no outbreak currently in Spain”unlike the seasonal flu, which at this time begins to be a problem regarding hospital income and urgencies.
Mild human metapneumovirus is fought with hydration, analgesics, home care and, above all, it is prevented with the use of the mask and hand washing.
There is neither a specific antiviral drug, nor a HMPV vaccine, although the microbiologist considers that, given its Similarity to the virus syncitial respiratory and if its incidence increases, the possibility of developing a vaccine could occur.
The human metapneumovirus, of the Paramyxoviridae family, was first described in 2001 in a laboratory of the Netherlands and when sera were analyzed up to fifty years ago it was observed that people had developed antibodies against a virus that was not new , but he had lived for many years among the global population.
(With EFE information)
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