Hello, friends! Once again, there's news from China about the spread of a virus. Over the last few days, on social media, many videos have gone viral whree a large number of patients can be seen in Chinese hospitals.
Flu-like symptoms have been observed in these patients. Many hospitals are said to have been overwhelmed. There are crowds of people at these hospitals.
The biggest fear among people now is whether this will turn into the sequel to COVID-19. The novel coronavirus that spread globally 5 years ago originated in a market in Wuhan, China. Now, according to the Global Times, China's government news website, in some areas of North China, Beijing, Chongqing, and Guangdong in South China, the most number of cases of this virus are being seen in these cities.
This virus is called HMPV, the Human Metapneumovirus. The first thing that people think of when they hear about this is, how dangerous will this new disease be? What even is this new virus?
But the thing is, friends, this isn't a new virus. This virus was discovered 24 years ago, in 2001. While COVID-19 originated in 2019.
This's why its name contained the number 19. It's believed that it spread from bats to humans. Whereas, in the case of HMPV, according to a research paper by Science Direct, this virus originated in birds 200-400 years ago.
But since then, this virus kept mutating, and now it cannot infect birds anymore. In the Netherlands, in 2001, it was first identified that it can infect humans. And you can say that's where it started affecting humans.
Now, it's not that this virus has been hiding for so many years and suddenly started infecting people in China in 2025. No, this virus has been active every season. When people get infected with this virus, they assume they caught the common cold.
And in a few days, the symptoms go away on their own. They don't even find out that they had the HMPV virus. The reason why it is also known as an Anonymous Virus.
This is a respiratory virus. That's why its symptoms are similar to that of common cold and influenza. To be exact, people who get infected by this, can get a fever, coughing bouts, a blocked nose, and some difficulty in breathing.
The incubation period of this virus is about 3-6 days. That means, if you get infected with this, it can take 3-6 days to start showing the symptoms. Once you fall sick, the intensity of the sickness, and its duration, depends on how serious the infection is, and your overall health.
Children and elderly people can suffer more serious complications, like pneumonia. Interestingly, according to Paul Hunter, a professor at the University of East Anglia in the UK, almost every child under the age of 5 has already had an HMPV infection at least once. After that, they often get reinfections throughout their life.
This disease is so common. This virus spreads the same the common cold and flu spread. Through the droplets that are released when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Or if after touching their face, nose or eyes, an infected person touches a surface, if you touch that contaminated surface, it can spread to you too. This will help you understand what are the precautions you need to take to protect yourself from this virus. According to Director General of Health Services, DrAtul Goel, proper distance should be maintained with people infected with HMPV.
Always block you nose and mouth while coughing or sneezing with handkerchiefs, or if you don't have a handkerchief or something similar, use your elbow to cover your nose and mouth while coughing or sneezing. Many people use their hands, but that's wrong, because then the droplets released would get on your hands, the same hands with which you'll grab handles, or push buttons at public places. This is general advice, and is useful even if you catch the common cold.
Always cough or sneeze into your elbow, and wear a mask in public places if you go outside while infected. Apart from this, do wash your hands regularly irrespective of whether you're infected or not. Even if you aren't infected, regular hand washing drastically reduces your chances of getting infected.
Because your hand often touches your face or nose, and you touch various surfaces in public places, it prevents you from getting any infections. The treatment procedure, most healthy people won't need to do anything extra. Keep drinking water, and staying hydrated, rest at home.
And for most people, in 5-7 days or in 7-10 days, it'll go away on its own. This is problematic for people with compromised immune systems, due to some other disease or age. They might suffer serious complications and would need to be admitted to the hospital.
Actually, how fatal is this virus? And do you need to be afraid of it? Let's talk about its death rate later in the video.
Because before that, I'd like to tell you there are no vaccines for this HMPV virus. Even though it was discovered 24 years ago, no vaccine was developed. Not because of lack of trying.
Many researchers did try to develop a vaccine, but there were problems related to the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. Some vaccines were tried on animals, but in many cases where animals were given the vaccines, their lung inflammation worsened. It did not reach the human trials.
One, because of the safety concerns, and two, because there could hardly be any sort of long-term immunity. Getting the common cold is something that everyone suffers once or twice every year. Do you know why?
Because common cold is not caused by a single virus. There are 200 different viruses that can cause the common cold. Plus, these viruses mutate constantly, so any immunity you develop doesn't protect you in the long term.
This is why there are no vaccines for the common cold. But don't worry, because many scientists believe that getting mildly sick occasionally is a good way to keep your immune system active and responsive. So the question is, if this isn't problematic, what's up with China?
China's National Disease Control and Prevention Administration has recently acknowledged that respiratory infections are on the rise in China, including the HMPV. But the Chinese Foreign Ministry says that the scale of the spread of respiratory illnesses is lower than that of last year. Experts say that the outbreak at this stage is not out of the ordinary.
In winters, many countries, see a bad flu season, where a significant population gets infected with the flu. Similarly, China is seeing a bad HMPV season according to experts. Now, the Indian media has greatly exaggerated this news.
As if its the beginning of the next global pandemic and the world would be under lockdown once again. "Things are going to get tensed again. " "Because a new virus, HMPV, is wrecking havoc in China.
" "There's going to be a lockdown once again. " "After Corona, a virus named HMPV," "is raising concerns every day. " "The world is terrorised by China's virus.
" Each individual case is being reported. The first HMPV case in Bangalore. A 3-month-old and an 8-month-old child were found to be HMPV positive.
"A case of HMPV it has now been detected in an 8-month-old child at a private hospital in Bengaluru. " In both cases, there was no international travel history. These children hadn't travelled internationally.
This proves once again that this isn't a new disease. After this, a case was seen in Gujarat in a 2-month-old infant and two cases in Tamil Nadu. Then, in Gujarat, an 80-year-old man was also found to be HMPV positive.
But, out of all these cases, none of the infected people had travelled outside India. WHO's former Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that HMPV has been infecting Indians for many years, but it wasn't discussed much. People are talking about it now.
the media blew this out of proportion so people were shocked. "I think people have not heard about this very much. " "Therefore, perhaps, it has come as a bit of a shock.
" "And it's all local. " "It's not like it has come from outside or come from China. " "It's recirculating in India for many years.
" She also said that it's meaningless to keep a count of the number of people infected by the HMPV, it serves no purpose. But there's still another question, why did news from China gain so much traction now in 2025? To some extent, this is because of China's zero Covid policy.
When Covid-19 spread in China, China imposed a very strict lockdown all over the country. This lockdown was stricter and remained in force longer than the ones in other countries. This meant that the Chinese residents weren't exposed to Covid for years.
Not only Covid, they weren't exposed to other respiratory viruses and bacteria either. For years, there was nothing to keep their immune system active and responsive. The winter of 2023 was the first in China after the lockdown was properly lifted.
And so the Chinese population was suddenly exposed to numerous viruses and bacteria. And all at once, various types of infections were seen Because of a lack of contact with these pathogens for a long time, there is an immunological deficit, that is, a deficiency in their natural immunity. This is why during the last winter, there was a massive surge in the number of flu cases in China.
This year too, there was a spike again in these respiratory illnesses, but not as much as last year's. World Health Organization hasn't declared HMPV infections a global health emergency, but they are closely monitoring the situation. The Wire has reported that the WHO hasn't reported any HMPV mutations yet, so it is unlikely that there'll be a major outbreak.
The Guardian claims that experts say HMPV is not a virus like Covid. It has been around for decades. So, people have already developed a certain level of immunity against it.
Those of you who are watching this video, there is a high chance that you already have some immunity against this HMPV virus. DrAneesh, a nodal officer at Kerala One Health Centre says that by the time children are 5 years or older, they have already developed an immunity against this virus. DrGagandeep Kang says that a re-infection is possible with this virus, but usually, it is a mild infection.
It gets serious in very young children or in people whose lungs are damaged, who have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or whose immunity is weak. Other people may suffer coughing bouts for a long time, but there is no cause to worry. So how deadly is this?
According to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet, in 2018, 16,100 people died from HMPV, of which 65% were children under the age of 6 months. This means that most of the people dying because of this virus are children under the age of 6 months. According to this paper, because of HMPV, children under the age of 1 are at the highest risk.
The actual number of deaths caused by HMPV, its exact death rate is difficult to calculate because the data on many respiratory diseases overlaps with this. But WHO's spokesperson Margaret Harris says that the risk of death in HMPV cases is 'very, very low. ' Miniscule.
But infants, children below the age of 1, have delicate airways. HMPV can block those. And their immunity is weak too.
For these infants, it's difficult to fight this virus. If you compare it with Covid, once someone is infected with Covid, there's a 0. 28% chance of them dying.
Known as the Crude Mortality Rate. If 100,000 people get infected with Covid, then 289 people would die. Obviously, this is the global average.
The exact rate depends on the region you live in, your health, access to hospitals, and the hospital facilities. If this rate is compared to flu or influenza, then if 100,000 people get influenza, only 1. 8 of them would die.
A 0. 0018% mortality rate. If we combine the data of influenza and pneumonia, on average, 14.
1 infected people out of 100,000 die. A 0. 014% mortality rate.
But we don't know the exact rate for HMPV, but looking at the numbers, you can estimate that the mortality rate of HMPV would be much closer to that of influenza and pneumonia and farther from Covid's. Overall, it's safe to say that the panic on Indian social media about this virus is largely exaggerated. It is true that it is difficult to get reliable information from China because of the high censorship.
But India Today analysed China's social media website Weibo to find out what the Chinese people are saying about the virus and HMPV. They looked up keywords like HMPV, virus, death, lockdown, and curfew, and according to their analysis, it was found that the spread in China is not as lethal as it is presented in India. There are no sign of lockdown restrictions.
China is also reporting that the overall number of HMPV cases is lower than that of the previous flu season. The fear-mongering about HMPV in India led to panic selling in the stock market. And investors suffered a loss of around ₹11 trillion.
So don't panic. Follow the regular hygiene precautions I told you about. And focus on the fact that there are many more serious issues that aren't being discussed in our country.
Like this issue, of names being deleted from the voter list. The way elections are being manipulated and how you can protect your voting right, was discussed in this video. It's an important video, click here to watch it.
Thank you very much!
