Today, it seems like there’s a new thing to panic about every week; wildfire outbreaks in California, political divides growing wider, and numbers of cases for illnesses increasing daily. The world feels like it’s getting scarier and more stressful every day. Although many of these things are beyond our control, there are a few things that, when light is shed on them, turn out to be a lot less scary than they originally appeared to be. A great place to start is with the recent virus outbreak in China.
In December of 2024, China and select other countries (like the U.S.A and Australia) saw a surge in cases of the human metapneumovirus (HMPV), especially in children and the elderly. The sudden and intense spike in cases for HMPV has led many on social media platforms like X and Instagram to fear an incoming pandemic, similar to the Covid-19 pandemic of March 2020. Luckily, we know much more about HMPV than we did about Covid, and things are looking much better than they did 5 years ago.
Discovered in the Netherlands in 2001, HMPV is a virus that causes respiratory disease in those infected by it. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), symptoms include coughing, fever, nasal congestion, and shortness of breath. There’s no known treatment for it, but luckily the disease isn’t nearly as fatal as Covid-19. But what caused the surge less than a month ago? Unfortunately, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the reason behind the sudden outbreak is unknown, but not entirely unexpected.
Since its discovery in 2001, HMPV has continually seen an up spike in the number of cases during the winter months. This surge usually lasts until March, and then dies out as the temperature rises. Many scientists expect the virus to follow the steady course it has run for many years now. The chances of this recent HMPV outbreak escalating to the level of a pandemic is significantly less than what Covid-19 had.
As panicked as the populace is at the thought of another pandemic and another 2 years locked indoors, it appears that the HMPV outbreak is likely to continue just a bit longer, but won’t have the same effect that Covid-19 had all those years ago. Much of the fear caused by this virus is because of the lasting impact of the last pandemic. It’s important to remember that while this surge is concerning, we have much more knowledge of how HMPV works, allowing doctors and scientists to be much more prepared to handle spikes like this.
While much of the world seems to be in disarray, it’s important to not let the fear get to you. By looking into concerning points and learning more about them, we can try and mitigate that fear and help steady those around us.
