Like many other respiratory viruses, Williams said hMPV tends to affect people with chronic lung disease or pre-existing conditions such as asthma or cancer. However, despite this, many doctors remain unaware of the threat this disease poses, largely because until relatively recently, no one was testing for the disease outside of academic research. He discovered.
“There’s no question that even within the medical community, many physicians don’t realize how common hMPV is,” he says. “As laboratory tests became more available, people would come up to me and say, ‘Last week, I had a patient in my ICU who had metapneumovirus.’ That’s true, but this… I don’t think people fully believe the burden until they see it for themselves. ”
Fermundo says there may have been many spikes in hMPV infections in the past, but we either didn’t notice them or mistook them for influenza. He explained that one of the consequences of the coronavirus was the recognition of the need to strengthen surveillance of circulating respiratory viruses, meaning that for the first time epidemiologists have detected hMPV infections. did.
“The Chinese have made considerable progress in molecular diagnostics for respiratory viruses, and they do more public health surveillance than many other countries,” he says. “What we’re seeing is that they’re doing a particularly good job in this regard, and it turns out that metapneumovirus is more common than we thought. I think it is.”
Williams believes the current increased interest in hMPV could have a positive impact on public health. Currently, he said, hMPV can only be detected as part of a so-called multiplex panel, a diagnostic that confirms the presence of up to 25 respiratory viruses and costs about $200 per patient. That’s what it means. While this is a worthwhile investment for emergency room physicians who decide whether to admit or send sick infants home, it is often cost-prohibitive for general physicians.
“There are inexpensive tests for influenza, COVID-19, and RSV that are available to clinicians everywhere,” he says. “But there really isn’t an inexpensive test for hMPV, just this complex diagnostic panel that evaluates multiple viruses, and it’s difficult for the average clinic to obtain it.”
It is hoped that low-cost testing for hMPV may become a reality. Vermand said the Ragon Institute in Massachusetts is working on ways to reduce the price of testing for respiratory viruses to less than $6 per patient, with the ultimate goal of bringing the cost down to less than $1. .
Similarly, another consequence of increased awareness of hMPV is that it provides stronger incentives for rapid vaccine development. Although there is no licensed vaccine yet for this virus, a series of vaccine candidates have entered early-stage clinical trials over the past two years.
Last summer, scientists at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Moderna, began clinical trials of a combined RSV and hMPV vaccine, but Andrew Pollard, Professor of Infection and Immunology who heads the Oxford Vaccine Group, said that hMPV is not the best option for existing vaccines. would be the most practical means of deploying additional vaccinations.
“If we could put RSV and hMPV in the same vaccine, we could actually cover more respiratory hospitalizations without the need for additional needles,” Pollard said. “But first we need to look at how often we vaccinate against hMPV. If we can develop immunity by vaccinating every few years, we can combine it with RSV.”
Overall, Vermund describes the sudden interest in hMPV as an important development. Although this virus will not cause another pandemic, it is still afflicting so many people that it is not only putting a huge strain on the public health system, but also causing deaths among vulnerable people that have gone unrecognized for a long time. It is also the cause.
“Metapneumovirus is not a highly lethal virus, but it is incredibly common,” he says. “For many years, it has caused a significant amount of colds, creating an incredible economic burden and sometimes resulting in deaths.”
(Tag translation) Science
