HMPV in China, India– COVID19 Redux, Is India Ready?
What is HMPV Human metapneumovirus or HMPV is a negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus of the family Pneumoviridae and is closely related to the Avian metapneumovirus (AMPV) subgroup C. As of 2016, it was the second most common cause (after respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)) of acute respiratory tract illness in otherwise-healthy children under the age of 5 in a large US outpatient clinic. The peak age of hospitalization for infants with HMPV occurs between 6–12 months of age, slightly older than the peak of RSV, which is around 2–3 months. The clinical features and severity of HMPV are similar to those of RSV. HMPV is also an important cause of disease in older adults and infants. Human metapneumovirus was first discovered in 2001 in the Netherlands by Bernadette G. van den Hoogen and her colleagues. It was first detected in the respiratory secretions of 28 young children in the Netherlands and had initially stood out from other common respiratory viruses because the testing ...