5 years after the Covid pandemic that shocked the world, there is a respiratory virus that is putting the healthcare system in some Chinese cities in crisis: And the human metapneumovirus (Hmpv) epidemic. A known virus that causes a respiratory disease with symptoms similar to flu and colds, but which in some cases leads to complications such as bronchitis and pneumonia.
“Hmpv is a respiratory virus belonging to the Paramyxoviridae familyin the genus Metapneumovirus. It was first identified in 2001 and has since been recognized as a significant cause of acute respiratory infections in children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems. Our research group is collecting and making available to the scientific community data from the reports of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) on metapneumovirus and other respiratory viruses. Our work has included collecting data regarding the number of metapneumovirus samples, sequences and detections, available starting from the 2022-2023 influenza seasons, with numbers showing an increasing incidence of cases in different weeks of the year“. To take stock, with the first Italian article on the topic sent for publication to ‘The Lancet Infectious diseases’And Francesco Branda of the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, together with the epidemiologist Massimo Ciccozzi ea Fabio Scarpa.
