Cases of the Human Metapneumovirus, HMPV, have significantly increased across northern Chinese provinces in recent days, mainly among children.

The country’s centre for disease control has warned people to take precautions with health and hygiene, but has also pushed back against online claims of overwhelmed hospitals and fears of another Covid-like pandemic.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Mao Ning on Friday, said respiratory infections tend to peak during the winter season.

Findings by Ekwutosblog reveals that Human metapneumovirus, HMPV, is a respiratory disease that causes flu or cold-like symptoms, but can increase risks or lead to more serious complications like bronchitis or pneumonia, particularly among the elderly, young children, and immunocompromised people.

HMPV typically causes symptoms similar to the common cold, including a cough, runny nose or nasal congestion, a sore throat and a fever that clears after around five days.

Ekwutosblog gathered that more severe symptoms such as bronchitis, bronchiolitis and pneumonia can occur, with sufferers experiencing shortness of breath, severe cough or wheezing.

HMPV is in the same family as respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, and has been around since at least 2001 when it was first identified in the Netherlands. Its outbreaks are concentrated during colder seasons.

According to an expert in vaccine immunology at Imperial College London, Professor John Tregoning, the disease has very similar symptoms in children at least to respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, which usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms.

“It is part of the cocktail of winter viruses that we are exposed to and, like other viruses, it will transmit in coughs, sneezes and in droplets.

“Protecting yourself by being in well-ventilated spaces, covering your mouth when you cough and washing your hands will all help,” Professor Tregoning said.

Similarly, a professor of international health at Curtin University in Australia, Jaya Dantas, emphasised the need to use a cautious and measured approach, as it was since the Covid pandemic.

“We need to get tested, stay home and away from others, wear a mask in public and protect our most vulnerable.

“In young children, the elderly and those who are immune compromised, HMPV can lead to severe cases and can move to the lower respiratory tract and may lead to pneumonia,” he said.

In the same vein, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of East Anglia, Professor Paul Hunter, said that almost every child will have at least one infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday, adding that there is expectation of having multiple re-infections throughout life.

“It is one of the leading viral causes of respiratory infections in children under five-year-olds. In England, we have seen a fairly marked increase in recent weeks.’

“One of the issues involved in these types of infection is that they are being diagnosed more frequently, so it is not always easy to know whether, year-on-year, increases are due to actual increases or just because we are diagnosing a greater proportion of infections,” he added.

Ekwutosblog reports that the Federal Government of Nigeria said it would activate surveillance measures for inbound passengers from China following the current increase of a respiratory virus.

According to reports, the emergence of the virus has resulted in overcrowded hospitals, emergency measures and public concerns in China.

The virus has seen cases surging across northern Chinese provinces this winter, especially among children.

Reports indicate that neighbouring countries such as Cambodia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are closely monitoring the HMPV situation, having reported a few cases but no widespread outbreaks.

The Chinese authorities said there has been a noticeable increase in HMPV cases, especially among children under 14 years old in northern parts of the country.

Reacting to the spike,the Chinese government announced measures, including constant monitoring of cases, the adoption of masks, social distancing and disinfection of public spaces to curb the increase of the virus.

Ekwutosblog reports that HMPV outbreak is coming five years after the emergence of a novel coronavirus – COVID-19 – in Wuhan, China, which was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation on March 11, 2020.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, had said that the country is at moderate risk for Human Metapneumovirus, HMPV.

The agency, in a public health advisory, said the Federal Government was closely monitoring the outbreak of the virus and taking safety measures to boost the country’s preparedness and response capacity.

According to the agency, it had conducted a risk assessment for the HMPV in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and partners such as the World Health Organization, WHO, the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, USCDC, and the UK Health Security Agency, UKHSA.

“The assessment classified the risk of HMPV for Nigeria as moderate.

“This evaluation will inform and guide preparedness efforts, decision-making, and response strategies to mitigate potential impacts,” it said.

The NCDC dismissed the claims in some quarters that the World Health Organisation, WHO, had declared HMPV a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, PHEIC, describing the rumour as false and should be disregarded.

“The WHO has not made such a declaration. Recent reports indicate a significant rise in Human Metapneumovirus, HMPV cases in China, as well as increased respiratory infections linked to HMPV in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, particularly during the winter season.

“The UK Health Security Agency, UKHSA, has highlighted a notable rise in hospital admissions due to HMPV-related complications, especially among children under five and older adults in care homes. This trend emphasizes the need for heightened preparedness and vigilance,” it said.

Speaking, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Jide Idris said the country is not under any threat for now, assuring Nigerians that while there have been concerns over the outbreak of the virus in certain parts of the world, the country is safe and there is no cause for alarm.

“Let me say, there’s no serious threat for now. That’s one. Two, this HMPV virus, it’s not a new virus. It’s just that it’s not well-known. But it’s been implicated in many respiratory infections over the years, over the countries, especially in children, and elderly people.

“Just like the normal flu, old virus or influenza, respiratory virus, it’s just one of those causes of respiratory problems,” he stated.

According to him, the country is monitoring the situation and is on high alert with no cases reported in Nigeria yet, saying avoiding overcrowded places, washing hands, and others are part of measures against the disease.

“We are in a monitoring and alert phase, and that’s why again we take instructions from WHO globally because every country is supposed to report cases like this, any case; any problem to WHO – those things that they consider might become global problems later so that they can alert every other country to get prepared,” he said on the breakfast show.

“That’s precisely what we are doing in Nigeria. We’ve experienced some major problems – we had Ebola, and we had COVID. With those two, we developed some capabilities. We learned our lessons and put infrastructures in place.

“So we’ve got public health infrastructures. These are things you need to put in place in expectation of things like this so that you don’t have to start running helter-skelter,” he said.

Meanwhile, stakeholders have pledged to boost surveillance, public health communication, and collaboration to prevent the spread of the virus in the country.

They made the pledge at the strategic meeting on HMPV preparedness and response, which was organised by the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, in Abuja.

According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, while some cases can be hospitalised with bronchitis or pneumonia, most people infected with HMPV have mild upper respiratory symptoms similar to the common cold and recover after a few days.

The Director General of NEMA, Zubaida Umar, while speaking at the meeting, said the rising cases of HMPV sound like a stark reminder that a public health emergency recognises no borders as a health threat in one country has the potential to impact nations across continents.

Represented by the Director of Planning, Research and Forecasting, NEMA, Onimode Bandele, the DG-NEMA said, while Nigeria is not directly affected at the moment, proactive planning, preparedness, and collaboration are essential to safeguarding our citizens and mitigating any potential risk.

“NEMA in fulfillment of the mandate to coordinate disaster preparedness, mitigation, and response across Nigeria remains committed to ensuring effective collaboration, timely response, and resilience in the face of emergencies.

“In line with these mandates, NEMA aims to share insight and updates on the current situation and its potential implications for Nigeria; assess our collective preparedness and response capability at national, state, and local levels; strengthen collaboration and coordination amongst all relevant stakeholders to ensure an aligned and effective response strategy; and identify actionable steps that can be implemented immediately to enhance surveillance, monitoring, and readiness across critical sectors,” she stated.

Also speaking, a Director in the Department of Public Health at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Chidinma Agbai underscored the need to implement measures that could quickly address future disease outbreaks.

“All hands must be on deck. If all hands are on deck, we’ll be able to secure the borders of Nigeria. And ensure that whoever is coming in with the virus will be nipped in the bud and treated as well.

“We have to put the right measures in place to ensure that whenever any case of COVID-19 variant or HMPV comes, we will be able to arrest it at the point of entry,” she said.

On her part, the representative of the Director of Port Health Services, Dr Rasheedat Abdullateef, listed a major assessment that was completed last year, resulting in the designation of additional points of interest to expand the capacity to respond to public health emergencies.

“We have good synergies with the Civil Society Organisations, immigration service, Customs Service, among others. We are planning, training, and retraining on Infection Prevention and Control.

“We are expanding this beyond the health sector and looking at a more multi-sectoral approach that would be effective to support the overall implementation of this plan,” she stated.

The Deputy Director of Health and Social Care at the National Orientation Agency, Simon Idoko, emphasised the need to address the circulated rumors about the virus.

“We need to be familiar with the virus, this is an acute respiratory virus and not a variant of COVID-19. As we do normally, we always get advice from the NCDC.

“We are all sharing that, it’s building the information for the nation every day. So we’ll wait for an answer in this room, but we’ll be back in two and a half hours,” he added.

The surge in the mystery hPMV virus in the UK is mostly affecting young children — who are among the most vulnerable to serious complications, official data suggests.

The infection has sparked concern over the last week after reports surfaced showing hospitals in China seemingly becoming overwhelmed by an outbreak of hPMV.

Now, new figures show intriguing details of the simultaneous rise in the UK — which has seen cases double in just a month.

Virus monitoring data from The UK Health Security Agency shows that one in 10 children tested for respiratory infections in hospital were positive for human metapneumovirus (hMPV) as of December 23.

This is more than double the proportion of very young children that tested positive for hMPV in late November.

It comes as the NHS is already buckling under a tidal wave of flu with cases quadrupling in a month.

Official data shows some 5,000 beds in the health service were being taken up by flu patients as of the end of the year with the virus forming a ‘quademic’ of winter viruses heaping pressure on NHS services alongside noroviruses, RSV and Covid.

Experts also said they expect ‘things to get worse before they get better’ given recent cold weather more people have socialised indoors over the Christmas and the New Year period.

While hMPV mostly causes a mild illness that is similar to the common cold, very young children, alongside the elderly and those weakened immune systems like cancer patients, are at increased risk of severe illness.

This includes serious and potentially fatal respiratory complications like pneumonia.

Symptoms of an hMPV infection are similar to the common cold or flu, such as a cough, runny or blocked nose, sore throat and fever, with those struck by it usually ill for about five days.

hMPV spreads through tiny droplets that are expelled by the infected when they breath, but to a far greater extent when they cough and sneeze.

Infection can occur when people close by breath in these droplets or by touching surfaces contaminated with them, like door handles, and then going on to touch their face or mouth.

People with hMPV can also spread the virus while suffering no symptoms themselves as they are still contagious before they begin to feel ill.

It’s for this reason that all Brits are being urged to practise good hand hygiene like regularly and properly washing their hands, stay in well-ventilated spaces and try to avoid others when ill to reduce the potential spread of hMPV.

A lack of good hand hygiene, not covering mouths when coughing or sneezing and a habit of putting objects or hands in their mouths means young children run a higher risk of being exposed to respiratory droplets that can spread viruses like hMPV.

Experts have cautioned that hMPV, which produces flu-like symptoms, can lurk in the body for days and so it can be easily passed on to others

Playgroups where children mingle and interact can also provide fertile avenues for virus transmission as toddlers often cough or sneeze freely while and touching communal objects.

Children and babies are considered more vulnerable to a host of respiratory infections spread by droplets, like hMPV, because their immune systems are still developing.

Additionally, as the airways and lungs of very young children are very small, viruses that impede how we breathe can penetrate further, increasing the risk of complications.

China’s outbreak of hMPV, which has led to concerning footage of packed emergency rooms, has mainly spread amongst children.

Professor John Tregoning, an expert in vaccine immunology at Imperial College London, said when hMPV infects children it looks similar to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common winter bug that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms.

‘It is part of the cocktail of winter viruses that we are exposed to and, like other viruses, it will transmit in coughs, sneezes and in droplets,’ he said.

‘Protecting yourself by being in well-ventilated spaces, covering your mouth when you cough and washing your hands will all help,’ said Professor Tregoning

Similar to the advice related to Covid and RSV, those infected must ‘rest, stay hydrated and try not to spread it to others’, he added.

Professor Jaya Dantas, an expert in international health at Curtin University in Australia added: ‘In young children, the elderly and those who are immune compromised, hMPV can lead to severe cases and can move to the lower respiratory tract and may lead to pneumonia.’

Other experts however cautioned that the rise in cases in the UK ‘is not something that should cause undue concern’ and complications in children are rare.

Professor Jonathan Ball, a virologist at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said: ‘hPMV has been known about since 2001, and has been circulating in humans for at least 50 years – probably a lot longer.

‘Unfortunately, it is associated with pneumonia, particularly in young children, but this is thankfully rare.’

Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of East Anglia, also told MailOnline: ‘Almost every child will have at least one infection with hMPV by their fifth birthday and we can expect to go on to have multiple reinfections throughout life.

‘It is one of the leading viral causes of respiratory infections in children under five-year-olds.’

Unlike Covid or the flu, there is no vaccine for hMPV.

Treatment primarily involves managing symptoms and supporting a patient as their body fights off the infection.

Huge numbers of patients appear to overwhelm a hospital in China. Photo taken from social media

Patients with drips attached at a hospital in China. Photo taken from social media

Dr Conall Watson, consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA, said hMPV levels usually peak in Britain this time of year and data suggest the current spread is in line within expected thresholds.

He added: ‘As with all respiratory viruses, you can help reduce infections being passed on through regular handwashing and catching coughs and sneezes in tissues and throwing them away.

‘If you have symptoms such as a high temperature, cough and feeling tired and achy, try to limit your contact with others, especially those who are vulnerable.

‘There are many viruses in circulation at the moment, including flu – if you have symptoms of a respiratory illness and you need to go out, our advice continues to be that you should consider wearing a face mask.’

Health officials in Beijing have downplayed the developments in their hospitals as an annual winter occurrence.

But the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that rates of multiple flu-like illnesses are on the rise.

In its latest report, for the week to December 29, data suggested that 7.2 per cent of outpatient visits to local hospitals in northern provinces were due to a flu-like illness.

This was up 12 per cent on the previous week, and above the levels seen for the same week every fluseason since 2021.

Data for the southern part of the country suggested that 5.7 per cent of outpatient visits were due to flu-like illness.

This was up 21 per cent on the previous week, and also above the levels for the same week in 2021 when the figure was 4.1 per cent.

It was, however, below the levels in 2022 and 2023.

Some British virus experts have called on Chinese authorities to disclose vital information about its hMPV outbreak.

The UK authorities ‘need more information on the specific strain circulating’ in order to accurately assess the threat to the British public, warned virus expert Dr Andrew Catchpole.

‘hMPV is usually detected in the winter periods but it does seem that the rates of serious infection may be higher in China than what we would expect in a normal year,’ said Dr Catchpole, who is Chief Scientific Officer at infectious disease testing firm hVIVO.

‘We need more information on the specific strain that is circulating to start to understand if this is the usual circulating strains or if the virus causing high infection rates in China has some differences.’

He added: ‘It is unclear just how high the numbers are or if issues are arising purely due to coinciding with high flu and Covid levels.’

Promisingly, Dr Catchpole noted that while hMPV ‘does mutate and change over time with new strains emerging’, it is ‘not a virus considered to have pandemic potential’.

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The Delta State Police Command has said that autopsy confirmed that the police were not responsible for the d3ath of a man identified as Okediachi Emeka.

The victim’s brother, Desmond Okediachi, had alleged that Emeka was k!lled by a gun-toting policemen at the Ogbe-Osowe quarters in Asaba, the state capital on November 14, 2024.

According to him, Emeka d!ed after being repeatedly hit with guns by the police officers.

However, the spokesperson of the command, SP Bright Edafe said the deceased disclosed that he hit his head on a wall while fleeing from the police who were acting on a distress call.

Edafe, in a statement issued on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, said the autopsy report revealed that Emeka d!ed from hypertensive heart disease, uncontrolled hypertension complicated by pharmacological agents as indicated in the toxicology report which includes a concentration of hard drugs such as tramadol, Morphine, Opium, Diazepine, Amitriptyline, and Ethyl Alcohol.

The PPRO said the autopsy was carried out on the 7th December 2024 in the presence of some family members of the deceased and conducted by two pathologists.

“Following the death of Mr Okediachi Emeka which occurred on the 14th of November 2024 and it was alleged that the Police were responsible for his death. The Command issued a statement on 29th November 2024 assuring members of the public and concerned family members of the deceased that the commissioner of Police CP Olufemi Abaniwonda has ordered an immediate investigation with the assurance that if the Policemen were found to be culpable, they will be punished,” the statement read.

“The CP, as promised, ensured that a discreet investigation was carried out, which necessitated the conduct of an autopsy.

“The autopsy was carried out on the 7th December 2024 in the presence of some family members of the deceased and conducted by two pathologists, one of the pathologists was brought by the family of the deceased.

“The command wishes to inform members of the public that the autopsy report is finally out and as promised, the command wishes to inform members of the public of the outcome.