HMPV: CAUSES AND CURE

Kan Biao, head of the China CDC's National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, announced that the rate of HMPV among children ages 14 and under was on the rise in China.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published data showing that respiratory infections had risen significantly in the week of December 16 to 22, 2024; human metapneumovirus was linked to 6.2 percent of positive respiratory illness tests and 5.4 percent of respiratory-illness hospitalizations in China, more than COVID-19, rhinovirus or adenovirus. Kan Biao, head of the China CDC’s National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, announced that the rate of HMPV among children ages 14 and under was on the rise in China. Countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong, and India have also confirmed cases of HMPV infection.

Human metapneumovirus is an important respiratory pathogen that was first discovered in 2001 by researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. Despite being relatively new in the context of human viruses, HMPV has become recognized as a significant cause of respiratory illness, especially in young children, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals. This virus is part of the Pneumoviridae family, which also includes respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), another wellknown cause of respiratory infections.

VIROLOGY

HMPV is an enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA virus. It shares structural and functional similarities with RSV, as both viruses belong to the same family. The virus has a lipid bilayer envelope that contains glycoproteins, including the fusion (F) protein and the attachment (G) protein. These proteins play crucial roles in the virus’s ability to infect host cells by facilitating the binding of the virus to cell receptors and enabling viral fusion with the host cell membrane.