Some of the biggest stories going around is a new virus the human metapneumovirus which is spreading rapidly across several nations. What does this mean for the rest of the world? Is this the new Covid?
HMPV is a disease that is spreading throughout China is a cause for concern. This is a cold-like virus which causes a lot of serious respiratory problems. The virus was first discovered in 2001 it didn’t start spreading at an alarming rate until the end of 2024. There are already cases of the virus that are being identified in near by countries like the U. K., India, Japan, and Taiwan. This is causing many reasons for concern across the other big nations like the U.S. Not even 6 years ago did a similar virus named covid shutdown the word for about a year. The way and rate that this virus is spreading makes many believe that it will take the same path and there will be another worldwide lockdown. Many are also questioning if the recent amount of recent virus outbreaks are due to health standards, but some believe that these diseases are being created by humans.
The biggest question that many have is, will the HMPV virus take the same course as Covid did. They have many similarities like the fact that they have both originated from China. Both HMPV and Covid are respiratory diseases that are extremely contagious. One of the main differences between HMPV and Covid is the symptoms. Covid’s symptoms were much more serious and obvious, for example loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, and extreme fatigue. This also went along with some more common symptoms like headaches, sore throats, and coughs. HMPV on the other hand has similar symptoms to that of the common cold. Where patients are experiencing runny noses, sore throat, and congestion. Most cases are much milder compared to covid, lasting on average less than a week, whereas covid lasted on average about two weeks. One of the most pieces of data to look at is who is at risk those at risk are children, anybody the age of 65, and those with chronic respiratory diseases. Overall, one can see that HMPV has a few similarities to covid 19, but it is a much milder virus with less people at risk d.
There is also the debate about why China has so many outbreaks of diseases throughout the recent years. Many chose to blame this on the overall health of the country, which is ranked one of the lowest across the globe. This is in part due to the fact that the country has insufficient healthcare funds meaning that they don’t have the money to make sure that the citizens in the nation will have products and access to medical supplies which would greatly improve health conditions and stop the spread of diseases. One other cause for the less than stellar state of health across the country is due to things like open meat markets. These meat markets are multiple stands that have fresh meat and other goods as well as the option to purchase live animals from farmers. The problem with this is that the close proximity of the meat and people is the cause of the spread of animal diseases to humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 75% of new diseases in humans come from animals. The crowded streets full of people and the close proximity to live animals make the spread of disease almost inevitable.
Although most believe that the emergence of virus that have come from China is due to health issues there is the belief that these diseases are being created in a lab. It is believed that the reason why covid started in Wuhan China is due to the fact that it escaped from a lab. The corona virus is extremely similar to another disease that can be found in bats. When researchers took a closer look at it, they said that the spillover of the disease of the bats to humans is rare. There have been many efforts to figure out the origin of covid, but it has all been kept a secret and under wraps. During the beginning of the pandemic one of the scientists, DR Shi, thought that there was an outbreak from her laboratory.
Many in our own school were affected by Covid 1. One of those being Willa Soorus junior who had and knows many who got Covid. When asked about how Covid affected her personally she said that when she contracted the disease he said that her symptoms were relatively mild and had nothing that horribly affected her health. She said that she had connections to people who sadly lost a loved one. She says that Covid has effected her life now because there are so many more safety precautions that have been put into place due to the international pandemic.
Parents also are invested in the idea of this new virus. When interviewed the parent of a student stated that she was concerned about her children having to deal with fighting outbreaks and having to deal with all of the illness that will occur with it. She also stated that she thinks to prevent the outbreak of another virus that there should be laboratory regulations like in certain countries like the U.S. or the U.K.