Experts: Don't panic about HMPV, just exercise caution
Hyderabad: There is no real need to panic over the few cases of Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) cases detected in the country and acknowledged by the Indian Council for Medical Research, but caution should be watchword, especially for people who might have developed vulnerabilities after the Covid pandemic, experts have said.
The concern over the HMPV ‘outbreak’ in China, especially after how Covid spread to the rest of the world from that country is quite understandable among the public, but as ICMR has said, HMPV has been endemic in India for nearly two decades and has not exhibited any potential for creating a pandemic like condition, Dr Ranga Reddy Burri, who heads the Infectious Diseases Control Academy of India, has said.
“According to the World Health Organisation, any microorganism that has a pandemic potential shows an ability for easy transmission, exhibits virulence, and displays possible quick mutations. HMPV has not shown any of these characteristics. There is no cause for panic, but those who may feel vulnerable must take precautions to protect their health, which is good advice whether there is a virus going around or not,” he explained.
To set the minds of the people at rest, the government would do well to ramp up testing for HMPV, and take private medical practitioners into confidence seeking data of seasonal respiratory disease cases to get a better handle on the issue and understand how this virus is behaving, Dr Ranga Reddy said.
Though HMPV may not have evolved into anything sinister like Covid-19 virus did, it is a virus that follows the same pathological pathways once it enters the human body, Dr Vyakarnam Nageshwar, the well-known immunologist and allergy expert said.
While he too stressed the fact that there was no need for any panic as HMPV has been around for long, but in the post-Covid era, taking chances may not be the best option, he explained. “If anyone had any complications during or post-Covid infection, or experienced complications following Covid vaccination, such a person should not wait for long when suffering from flu-like symptoms. My advice is to seek medical help within 48 hours,” Dr Nageshwar said.
Post-Covid-19, Dr Nageshwar said for instance, an extraordinary number of instances of a condition called ‘augmented mast cell degranulation’ leading to inflammatory mediators in blood. These mediators not just tell the body to attack an invading virus but this action can spill over affecting various organs. Before Covid, mast cell augmentation was seen rarely, in one or two cases in every one lakh patients, but after Covid, these numbers have become very high, he said, explaining how Covid caused long-term health issues among many people.
“A large number of Covid victims are still suffering from chronic inflammatory conditions in the body that can cause severe cytokine storms which was a contributing factor for Covid deaths. And HMPV follows the same infection pathways, and can cause similar reactions under the backdrop of existing hypercytokinemia, and this is precisely why we cannot let our guard down. HMPV may not be a pandemic causing virus, but it has the potential to play havoc with the health of the vulnerable,” Dr Nageshwar said.
The real tragedy is that in India, there are not even a handful of studies that followed post-Covid complications or conditions among the population, particularly about inflammation in the body or presence of inflammatory markers in those who contracted Covid, he said.