Australians should not be concerned about rising cases of a common virus in China but should remain vigilant against infections, health authorities say, as COVID and other illnesses continue to swirl through the festive period.
When Chinese authorities last month reported a surge in children aged 14 and under testing positive for human metapneumovirus (hMPV), social media users began reposting images of crowding emergency departments, and some speculated whether it may be the start of another global outbreak.
But Australian public health experts are yet to see evidence the infections are caused by new strains of the virus, which was first identified in Australia 20 years ago but was likely circulating even before then.
“We only have very limited information, as you can imagine, but there’s no red flags that have come up that would show it’s anything unusual,” said Dr Jeremy McAnulty, executive director of Health Protection NSW.
The virus causes common cold symptoms that can be difficult to distinguish from those caused by other respiratory viruses: nasal congestion, coughing, shortness of breath and fever.
In some circumstances, hMPV can progress to pneumonia and bronchitis requiring hospitalisation. Children or people with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable.
NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty.Credit: Nick Moir
Cases of hMPV peaked in NSW in late September and early October, when around one in every 10 PCR tests analysed at the state’s SentinelLabs returned positive for the virus.
Around 4000 people were testing positive for the virus at the time. In the first week of January, that number dropped to around 500 people, or less than 3 per cent of total tests taken, according to statistics to be published by NSW Health on Thursday.
McAnulty said most people would have had the virus at some stage, but lower transmission during the COVID pandemic was likely to have caused a “backlog of infections” that were only being felt now.
While hMPV has declined, COVID cases have increased slightly over December and early January as people mix over the festive season, and new strains continue to emerge.
“COVID probably hasn’t settled down to its end pattern,” McAnulty said. “The memory of the pandemic is now fading a little bit … but preventing [COVID] in terms of basic hygiene will work for those other respiratory infections, such as metapneumovirus, as well.”
Dr Rebekah Hoffman, a Sutherland Shire GP and the NSW and ACT chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said hMPV was nothing new, but PCR swabs had become far more popular with patients and GPs.
“Before COVID, we would have just told people they have a cold and to take a few days off and rest up,” she said. “Now, because everyone wants to know exactly what it is that they have, we’re doing a hell of a lot more swabs than what we were a couple of years ago.
“I’m not convinced that there’s anything outrageous or even special going on. I think we’re probably just swabbing more people than what we used to.”
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