hMPV: Human Metapneumovirus Explained

This episode of "Your Checkup" provides an in-depth look at Human Metapneumovirus (hMPV), a common respiratory virus that often circulates alongside seasonal influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). We will explore how hMPV spreads, its typical cold and flu-like symptoms, and when it can become more severe, potentially leading to complications like pneumonia or bronchiolitis. You'll learn who is most at risk for severe illness, and how to take practical steps to protect yourself and your family. The episode will also cover current treatment options including over-the-counter remedies and the latest in diagnostic testing. Finally, we will discuss current trends in hMPV cases, including how the virus is being monitored globally, as well as how it is being considered alongside other common seasonal respiratory infections

Takeaways

Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a common respiratory virus.
HMPV often circulates with other viruses like flu and RSV.
Symptoms of HMPV include cough, fever, and sore throat.
High-risk groups for HMPV include infants, older adults, and those with chronic conditions.
Preventive measures include hand hygiene and staying home when sick.
There is no specific vaccine or antiviral treatment for HMPV.
PCR testing has changed the landscape of diagnosing respiratory viruses.
Misinformation about HMPV can cause unnecessary panic.
Public health monitoring is crucial for understanding virus trends.
Accurate information is essential to combat misinformation.

Keywords

Human Metapneumovirus, HMPV, respiratory virus, symptoms, prevention, treatment, misinformation, public health

Transcript

Ed Delesky, MD (00:02)
Hi, welcome to your checkup. are the Patient Education Podcast, where we bring conversations from the doctor's office to your ears. On this podcast, we try to bring medicine closer to its patients. I'm Ed Delesky  a family medicine resident in the Philadelphia area. And we are so excited you were able to join us here again today. While we're recording this, our bellies are full with cream of mushroom soup and sitting in complete darkness.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:17)
and I'm Nicole Aruffo.

Ed Delesky, MD (00:30)
Because this isn't video, you won't see that Nikki has her hair wrapped up in a towel.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:35)
I

do. I just took an everything shower. to wash my hair because tomorrow's my birthday.

Ed Delesky, MD (00:37)
fashion.

And tomorrow is your birthday. I'm so excited. I love your birthday. Remember, we're to go to dinner and Nikki doesn't know where we're going yet. And I wouldn't nefariously reveal it while we're live here, at least for the recording purposes. But it'll be a day spent at work. But when that's done, we'll spend a lovely evening together and have a little breakfast plan for you, So I can't wait to celebrate you tomorrow. Well, you're welcome. So what did you think about the cream of mushroom soup?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:05)
Thanks,

it was delicious. It always is. I think we can add it to the recipe book.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:17)
yeah, this is I love this tradition. So like you started doing the yearly photographs in the book and.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:25)
I think our 2024 one just got delivered.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:27)
Like, as we speak.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:30)
No, I had it delivered to my parents because we can't have anything nice in this city and can't order anything to our doorstep without the risk of getting it stolen.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:40)
Yeah, the thieves are called porch pirates for anyone who's wondering. Yeah, it plagues our neighborhood, probably surrounding neighborhoods, too. I think they case the Amazon truck and they go behind. And there are these people who are walking by taking packages. I've seen it live in front of me. And usually you don't approach them because, you know, you just don't know. But Ali tries to help sometimes. He doesn't like them either. But.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:04)
Yeah, he doesn't like them either.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:08)
Like I was saying, you the twenty twenty four books and now you have this cute recipe book of all of the things that in your handwriting, which I think is so endearing in today's technological world, of all of the major meals that we eat. And I think it's amazing.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:23)
Ali likes my receipts too.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:26)
Ali also likes the receipts. It's receipts. It's definitely not the jingling outside the door. But our intern is very active tonight. And without further ado, why don't we get live into our episode today?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:40)
Sleigh.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:41)
today. All right, Nikki, what are we talking about today?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:47)
Today we're talking about human metanumavirus, otherwise known specifically in the media these days as HMPV. That's what I've seen during my research.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:51)
Yes.

Oh, geez. Yeah, you brought this. So this is a Nikki special. You brought this episode up and brought it to my foresight to produce an episode on this because this is in the so-called zeitgeist. And it's all over social media, the regular media. And people seem to be much like the bird flu that we did a little bit earlier. Very nervous about this and possibly reasonably so after everything people went through in twenty twenty. But we're here today to talk about an immeasured way.

Human metanumavirus, which we both have seen and we were talking, we were going to ACME and about this and like it would be.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:41)
Because I keep getting served this content of people and their misinformation, which is another whole episode that we'll talk about, basically saying there's this new virus, this virus called human metanumavirus, or they'll just write the HMPV and how awful it is, and we're going to have another pandemic, and we're going to have another lockdown, and saying that this is a totally new thing.

And it's not. So we're going to talk about it. Because if you're also getting served the same thing that I am, and you have no knowledge about this, it's probably scary.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:21)
Exactly. And so just to kick us off here, we'll of course dive into more detail. But the headliner is that human metanumovirus is a very common respiratory virus and often circulates with other viruses like flu and RSV and a long list of other things that cause the common cold. And so like Nikki was saying, the goal of this episode is to inform you all about human metanumovirus, symptoms, prevention, treatment and current trends. And so

Speaking of current trends, where are we in terms of human metanumavirus? So during the wintertime in the northern hemispheres, there is an uptick of acute respiratory infections, and that includes human metanumavirus. And so what you probably have been seeing is that in some countries like China, that they have been seeing increases in human metanumoviruses recently. And so what I want to clarify is that

These increases are generally within the expected ranges for the winter season. They look at this and they compare it to old times and new. And this is all within expected ranges. Ever since COVID and probably before that, human metanumavirus is being monitored alongside other respiratory infections. And the World Health Organization that's doing this. And overall, we lean on them to track this data and participate in active surveillance.

to make sure that the trends are staying where they're supposed to be and see if there are any changes in potential severity. But to that end, it seems like everything is lining up where things normally do in the winter. So, Nikki, because you've probably seen this a little bit more than I have on the pediatric side, can you explain to us what human metanumovirus is?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (06:08)
Yes. Well, it's a very common respiratory virus that will cause cold and flu-like symptoms. It can cause worse things and, you know, high-risk people, which we'll talk about, but for the normal, healthy person, you're going to have a cold. When kids have it, I do think that it's one of the ones that are a little more nasty. But at the end of the day, the symptoms are really all the same. And it spreads just like any other virus with, like,

Droplets, touching surfaces, so maybe don't have someone like sneeze and cough on your face and wash your hands. Classic advice. This is not rocket science. Someone's sick. It's the same thing.

Ed Delesky, MD (06:42)
Bye.

Right.

Is there a certain time of year that normally spreads more than others?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:00)
Yeah, in the classic like cold and flu season, so winter until like the early spring.

Ed Delesky, MD (07:07)
Gotcha. And then can you kind of run us through, I mean, I'm seeing typical symptoms here. Nothing, nothing spectacular is cough, fever, sore throat, which throws a lot of people off. think people get a sore throat and they're like, my God, it's strep. a lot of times, in fact, most of the time it is a strep running or stuffy nose, body aches and headaches. So typical flu symptoms there. And then more like severe symptoms can include wheezing, difficulty breathing, sometimes chest pain.

dizziness, severe fatigue, dehydration, persistent fever. But like you mentioned earlier, we're going to talk about which categories of people are at higher risk for that. And so why don't we go there next actually. which groups of people are higher risk when it comes to these viral infections and in this case, human metanumovirus?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:56)
So really the same as any other virus that we've talked about. So infants and really kids under five years old, older adults, if you have any kind of chronic respiratory condition like COPD or asthma, you're just unfortunately might be hit harder if you get some sort of respiratory infection and then if you have any kind of immunosuppression.

Ed Delesky, MD (08:20)
Right. And moving into this next section, talking about how to prevent human metanumovirus infection. Well, we've talked about it in a couple other episodes. It is how to prevent the transfer and spread of any other virus. And if you are really concerned, I mean, you may consider wearing a mask. And I mean, if you can improve ventilation in certain areas and ventilation being the actual specific flow of air, you can open a window, practicing hand hygiene, washing your hands, singing Happy Birthday while doing that.

will do you some good and stay home if you're not feeling good. Remote work is a thing these days and be honest with yourself. If you're not feeling well, you might get other people sick. And so probably partake in some of that social responsibility. then, Nikki, when it comes to is there anything else there that we should really go after? It's all stuff that we really we've talked about before. Yeah. And is there anything different about treatment options for human metanumovirus? Other than like over the counter.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (09:21)
No, nothing special. There's no vaccine specific or like antiviral for this one. There are, you know, like symptom treatments like Tylenol, Advil, if you have a fever or you're achy, stuff like that. Hydration and rest. Sure. Until you get better. Ride it out. Yeah.

Ed Delesky, MD (09:45)
Yeah, nothing too special there. But speaking of special, this is actually a pretty interesting piece. Maybe we spend a little bit more time on these next two items. The diagnostic testing. a PCR is an acronym for a biochemistry process called the polymerase chain reaction. It doesn't matter what that means. But what it does is it can get to the DNA or RNA of a virus or a lot of other things and identify.

what a sample is. And so you're taking nasal swabs or pharyngeal swabs and you're going out there, they're doing these tests and finding out what the heck the virus is, which is very different than how things were done before PCR testing, where we're kind of talking here about like riding it out and it not being terribly important for a lot of people because 90, 95 % of these infections and things that give people cold

Things that give people colds are viruses that go away on their own. But the PCR changed everything.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (10:52)
Yeah, probably not for like the best. Don't you think? I think it makes people more anxious. When like for like COVID and the flu, there are things you can like that will alter like things that you do in treatment potentially if someone wants that.

Ed Delesky, MD (11:00)
Yeah, I

Nicole Aruffo, RN (11:13)
But at the end of the day, if you have human metanumavirus, rhinovirus, adenovirus, the OG coronavirus, it doesn't matter because the course of the virus is pretty much the same across the board. You're going to feel crappy. You're going to get sick. You're going to get better.

Ed Delesky, MD (11:39)
Right. Which it doesn't change anything. Yep. There's like, guess, of course, there are exceptions to all these rules, but in the vast majority, the people who live in the middle, this won't change. Yeah. And why would you there's a big theme, at least in our training, that like if you won't make a change to the management, why would you get a test or if you're going to order a test, you should have a reason for it because you're going to act on it and you know what to do with it. And if that's not the case.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (11:41)
and it doesn't change anything.

Ed Delesky, MD (12:09)
You should think twice about ordering that test. And I think this is exactly what happens here. then, like during the times of covid, sure, especially when they came out with some treatments, but it also changed your social behavior. Right. Like if you knew you had covid, the timing was different that you would isolate. But I mean, these days, these PCRs are coming out usually in children. They're getting a swab and they're getting a long list.

of all these potential viruses that it could be. And these tests are hundreds of dollars. I mean, what? It's not completely useless in every single situation, but and sometimes it's illuminating that like if you have a kid who looks really sick in front of you and you don't know why and they can't tell you why, sometimes it can be reassuring. And if that's what you're chasing, then maybe. But it's an expensive thing. Knowing that like

Nicole Aruffo, RN (12:45)
Yeah.

Ed Delesky, MD (13:07)
The COVID flu and RSV are the ones that usually go on like a standard mini PCR basically. And then there's the expanded ones that include the long names. remember seeing a kid who like really was down bad for a couple of days and at the hospital for human metanumovirus and day in day out you come look at them and it's like.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, they do look, they get like punky pretty quick.

Ed Delesky, MD (13:34)
like, it's still this day three. And I'm like, we're still this hasn't gotten any better. And then you start asking questions of yourself. You're like, could it be anything else? And eventually you do your due diligence. like, I mean, you probably saw that day in and day out.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:38)
We're still here?

Yeah. I mean, it's like nice in the hospital sometimes to know because like you, I mean, you're probably going to get a PCR like in the ED just because that's what they do. Probably. Especially if you're getting admitted and then, then you just kind of have an idea of like, as like a nurse or like the doctor, like kind of what to look out for and what they might do. Like, I guess really, I don't know, like that one's one. And then like RSV with like,

the timeframe of that and when they might kind of right crap out before they get better and went to kind of like be more on alert. But yeah we're still doing the same stuff so it doesn't matter.

Ed Delesky, MD (14:35)
So, yeah, I mean, there's an argument both ways, probably. I mean, the people who make this and sell this are probably like, do it everywhere. But there's probably an in-between that people will find themselves eventually, maybe or maybe not. All right. So we had some time. had some a good time there talking about these little couple of notes about diagnostic testing and.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (14:57)
Yeah, so when you are getting served misinformation about human metonymovirus.

Report it for fraud.

Ed Delesky, MD (15:09)
yeah, that's a good way to...

Nicole Aruffo, RN (15:11)
spreading misinformation.

Ed Delesky, MD (15:13)
I know you've been really passionate about that. We've got, I mean, loads of ideas.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (15:17)
It's very frustrating. I'm going to have a lot to say. We're going to do a whole episode about the rapid spread of misinformation and how dangerous it is. And I have a lot to say. I think you probably do too.

Ed Delesky, MD (15:29)
I do. mean, the whole essence of this podcast is essentially to try to combat that.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (15:35)
But

it's harder to spread correct information than it is to spread misinformation Like if we were out here Saying all this made-up stuff. We would have gone viral by now

Ed Delesky, MD (15:47)
yeah, definitely. But no, we are taking a level headed approach to educate people and bring medicine closer to them. And Ali is very passionate about this, too. So overall, this is a public health issue, I guess, as well as probably getting a. It's January, so I mean.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (16:04)
It's January. People

are, and that's like another thing I kept saying too, like, like a sudden spike in this virus or like a sudden, yeah, it's, it's cold and flu season. are spikes in the viruses. Been that way for ages.

Ed Delesky, MD (16:19)
Right.

And kind of people have to kind of be OK with that. as we get years out of covid, of which now we're from the start of it, moving on to five years out. Yeah. That this does happen and people pay attention to it. And so take a breath. It's fine. Come back to another week of your checkup.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (16:41)
Hopefully this episode doesn't age poorly. It's Tuesday, January 14th, 2025. Hopefully it doesn't age poorly and we find ourselves in another pandemic a couple months from now. That would be awkward. We would have to cancel ourselves.

Ed Delesky, MD (16:47)
Thank you for dating that.

But

I don't think it will. And like I said, the WHO, as in the World Health Organization, looks at all of this stuff and they're monitoring it. And really, there's been no behavior that's been outside the range of what is expected. And so that's all we kind of have to say about this on this week's episode of your checkup. Thanks for coming back. Take a look at our website. Share with a friend, a loved one or

Nicole Aruffo, RN (17:22)
a neighbor.

Ed Delesky, MD (17:23)
and check out our Instagram. We're on TikTok. Send us some fan mail. You got a topic that you want. We're still taking those health goals. They've been coming in in droves. And until next time, stay healthy, my friends. I'm Ed Delesky I'm Nicole Aruffo. Thank you and goodbye. Bye.

This information may provide a brief overview of diagnosis, treatment, and medications. It's not exhaustive and is a tool to help you understand potential options about your health. It doesn't cover all details about conditions, treatments, or medications for a specific person.

This is not medical advice or an attempt to substitute medical advice. You should contact a healthcare provider for personalized guidance based on your unique circumstances. We explicitly disclaim any liability relating to the information given or its use. This content doesn't endorse any treatments or medications for a specific patient. Always talk to your healthcare provider for a complete information tailored to you. In short, I'm not your doctor and make sure you go get your own checkup with your own personal doctor.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (18:26)
I am not your nurse.