The circulation of numerous rumors on the web regarding the spread in China of several viruses, including human metapneumovirus (hMPV), has caused a wave of concern. Virologists interviewed by RT recall that this disease, far from being new, remains benign, although it can be dangerous for the most vulnerable.
Social media has been in turmoil for several days after claims circulated that several respiratory viruses were spreading in China, including human metapneumovirus (hMPV).
This causes symptoms similar to those of the flu, mainly affecting children under 14 years old as well as adults over 60 years old. It has already been talked about in the past, notably in spring 2023, after an increase in contamination in the United States during the previous winter.
Speaking to RT, Anatoli Altsteïn, chief researcher at the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, was reassuring, insisting that there would be no reason to panic. He said although the disease is generally mild, it can pose “a danger to vulnerable people, such as infants, the elderly and those with immunodeficiencies.”
This virologist added that the virus “is neither very widespread nor particularly serious”, stressing that “it is not a coronavirus and that an epidemic comparable to that of COVID-19 or influenza ‘is not to be feared’.
Professor Olga Karpova, director of the Department of Virology at Lomonosov Moscow State University, stressed that hMPV is not a new threat, as it has been known since the 1950s. However, she highlighted warns against the risk of complications, in particular “the appearance of pulmonary infections of bacterial origin, which could worsen the situation”.
“Unlike the flu virus,” she said in a statement to RT, “hMPV does not undergo rapid mutations or significant variability, which limits the likelihood of new strains appearing.”
“Fake news” according to the Chinese embassy in the Philippines
On social networks, several posts have veered into alarmism. Images showing queues in front of hospitals, which have gone viral on X, Instagram and TikTok, tend to reinforce concern on the web even though they provide no tangible element.
These publications, widely relayed, showing images of people appearing to be waiting in hospital, suggest that the health situation in China is worrying, with “overwhelmed hospitals” as well as “crematoriums”. Claims have also circulated that Beijing has taken exceptional measures to contain the spread of several respiratory viruses, including hMPV.
No statement has, to date, been made to this effect by Beijing or the World Health Organization, several so-called fact-checking sites have pointed out.
In the Philippines, with theInquirerconsidered the daily newspaper of reference in this country, the director of the media section of the Chinese embassy, Tom Wu, on January 3 described as “fake news” these publications circulating on social networks claiming that a new epidemic in China raised “international health concerns”.
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