Despite the fact that four years have gone by, people still remember the troubles and horrors which they had to face during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic had caused people to be forced to stay at home and not come into close contact with each other due to the fear of catching the new germ known as Coronavirus.
People affected by it died due to respiratory problems and those that survived and have a vaccine are not sure as to how well they exactly are. This is of course because the Covid vaccine was made in a rush. Although most of these people felt that such a pandemic will never happen, their hopes have been crushed recently.
This is because a new virus has entered into the picture which seems to have similar symptoms as that of the Coronavirus. This virus has been named as the HMPV virus and is now becoming a major source of fear among common people. Let us see what this virus is and what it can do to society.
What is The Case of the HMPV Virus?
The HMPV virus is named as the Human Metapneumovirus in full form. It is a pathogen that has been discovered to be one of the main things to cause pneumonia. This virus originated from China at the beginning of 2025. However, new cases soon started happening more in India just after a week of the virus’s appearance in China.
The first cases happened in Bengaluru where an infant and an identified adult man were infected with this virus. Both of the patients were admitted to the nearest hospital soon. However, new cases of HMPV infection started to happen in other parts of India such as Gujarat, Assam and Tamil Nadu.
As of now 17 patients have been infected by this disease in India and some of them have died as well. However, the news media has not published any information as to how many people have died exactly and what their age was or if they had comorbidities or not. The main motive here is to prevent widespread panic. However, people are still unsure as to whether they should see this as another worldwide threat or not.
Will This Virus Cause a Lockdown?
As of now the spreading of this virus has been kept under control. The Chinese government has been trying its best to not let infected people or those who have healed recently visit any other country. As a result, the spreading of this virus has been halted successfully as of now.
This shows that there is no need for a lockdown right now. In fact, no new cases of HMPV infection have been reported recently. Doctors from both India and China have said that this virus is not as deadly as Covid-19 and can be cured easily by using medications used to treat common cold or pneumonia. The reported deaths have also been revealed to be few and majority of the patients are now alive as well, as per the statements of most Indian hospitals.
What Can You Think About This Disease?
HMPV infections actually used to happen before as well. For example, many Europeans got infected by this virus back in 2001 and before as well. Most doctors see this virus as one of the main causes for common cold or pneumonia which can be cured easily. So what is so scary about the infections happening now?
Well the main scary fact is that HMPV virus very rarely infected humans in the past. In fact, the main causes for common cold are rhinovirus and adenovirus while that of pneumonia is generally caused by a bacteria known as Streptococcus pneumoniae. However, the sudden increase in HMPV infections seems to indicate that somehow this virus got enhanced and evolved.
Recently, a major case of HMPV infection has been reported in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the infection rates in China are decreasing slowly. This indicates something very suspicious on China’s part.
This is because either this instance means that China is waging a biological warfare by mutating different germs and making them stronger or we are slowly entering into the post antibiotic era when medicines will not work. It could also be possible that the Indian media is just trying to scare people by exaggerating the cases. I honestly feel that this might be the case. This is because it would be wrong to point towards a country without any strong evidence. Hence, it cannot be told as to why this virus is suddenly spreading like this.
However, based on the affirmations by most doctors, you can be sure that you do not need to worry much about this virus in India. This is because the virus is contained as of now and you can easily spot signs of infection which are basically similar to that of common cold, asthma or pneumonia. If you can detect it very quickly and treat it from getting too serious, then you do not need to worry much about your health as well. Lastly, you can feel assured that no lockdown is going to happen since people do not want to lose jobs and be isolated anymore.
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