2023-06-02 12:32:36
The flu, the Covid-19… and now the metapneumovirus? This seasonal virus challenges the medical community in the United States. Indeed, the disease has grown significantly in recent times, with 11% of hospitalized people testing positive in mid-March, reports CNN. The data show a peak of + 36% in metapneumovirus contaminations since the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic. However, there is currently no vaccine to avoid catching this disease.
Pulmonary infections and pneumonia
The symptoms of human metapneumovirus are very similar to those of the flu or the coronavirus, which is why some patients do not identify it immediately. These include dry cough, fever, runny nose and sore throat… According to the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), young children and the elderly are particularly susceptible to virus. It can cause them a serious lung infection that can lead to pneumonia.
It is also the second leading cause of respiratory infection in American children. As for seniors, they would be as affected by the metapneumovirus as by the flu. The president of the French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics, however, wanted to be less alarmist. Asked by TF1infohe estimated that “in the majority of children, [le métapneumovirus] does not require any special treatment. It causes symptoms close to nasopharyngitis, and more rarely viral pneumopathies, the majority of which heal on their own.
According to him, the increase in cases in the United States, which should soon also be observed in France, is due to “catching up with the immunological debt”. That is to say that the phenomenon would be the consequence of the lack of efficiency of our immune system after two years of strict health restrictions.
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