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Should Australia be worried about HMPV?


Manisha Fernando


9/01/2025 4:28:15 PM

As cases of human metapneumovirus surge overseas, what do Australian GPs need to know when concerned patients walk through their door?

HMPV virus.
According to New South Wales Health, recent diagnoses of HMPV have been declining over the past four weeks.

As the Northern Hemisphere experiences a seasonal surge in human metapneumovirus (HMPV), media images of crowded health services in China are provoking interest and angst in the Australian community.
 
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the increase in case numbers in China is within the expected range for its winter season, saying it is continuing to monitor the situation as part of its routine surveillance.
 
Despite this, concern over the virus is spreading among Australian patients, especially as it is linked repeatedly to the term ‘outbreak’ in its global media coverage.
 
So, should Australian GPs be worried?
 
Locally, the situation in Australia remains reassuringly unremarkable.
 
While testing rates for respiratory infections have risen dramatically in recent years due to easier access, Australian case numbers for all respiratory virus infections, including HMPV, remain within the expected seasonal range.
 
According to New South Wales Health, recent diagnoses of HMPV have been declining over the past four weeks, dropping from 1428 in mid-December to 529 at the start of January.
 
Infectious diseases physician and microbiologist Associate Professor Paul Griffin said there is no cause for alarm.
 
‘It’s been highly emotive seeing all those pictures of hospitals and people waiting, and I think it’s reminded everybody of what we first saw with COVID-19, but this is a very different issue,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘It certainly isn’t going to be the same as COVID, but I think we do need to look at what’s happening and take a few lessons away.
 
‘It highlights the importance of testing when people have symptoms of a respiratory virus, particularly if [their symptoms are] more severe, or they’re potentially eligible for antivirals for other infections.’
 
Professor Jill Carr, a virologist at Flinders University, agreed, saying this outbreak cannot be compared to COVID-19.
 
‘This is very different to the COVID-19 pandemic, where the virus was completely new in humans and arose from a spill-over from animals and spread to pandemic levels because there was no prior exposures or protective immunity in the community,’ she said.
 
Similarly, advice from other Australian infectious disease and public health experts supports that there is no cause for alarm.
 
Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake, Infectious Diseases Physician and Associate Professor of Medicine at The Australian National University, said the situation with HMPV is consistent with expected seasonal increases in the Northern Hemisphere.
 
‘At this stage, the likelihood is that China is experiencing a bad HMPV season, in the same way that in some years we have an overwhelming flu season,’ he said.
 
‘This could be due to a combination of viral and behavioural factors, but it should settle down.’
 
GPs play a crucial role in emergency preparedness and response and contribute by providing clinical care for individuals and families, ‘in consult’ and community education and contribute vital data and insights for population surveillance and vaccine research.
 
Professor Senanayake also highlights it is crucial that countries share infectious disease outbreak data to ensure early awareness of potential ‘significant mutations of concern’ and to aid vaccine development.
 
‘It is also vital for China to share its data on this outbreak in a timely manner. This includes epidemiologic data about who is getting infected,’ he said.
 
‘We will need genomic data confirming that HMPV is the culprit, and that there aren’t any significant mutations of concern. Such genomic data will also guide vaccine development.’
 
When asked what GPs should consider, Associate Professor Griffin said the current spotlight on HMPV provides an opportunity to review local practice procedures.
 
‘If you’re seeing someone who might have some of these symptoms, in addition to getting them tested, make sure that you’ve got robust procedures in place to manage people who might be infectious, so that you don’t catch these things yourselves or allow them to spread in your practice,’ he said.
 
‘All those things that we focused on so much for COVID work for all respiratory viruses.
 
‘Staying home when people were sick, wearing masks if people wanted to or where appropriate, cough and sneeze etiquette, hand hygiene and looking at air quality.’
 
Associate Professor Griffin said these proven infection control practices can be particularly helpful when observing local or national increases in infectious respiratory disease.
 
He advocated to going back to ‘a level of doing that to a reasonable degree, especially when we’re seeing rising cases’. ‘I think it is important, and something that we should always be mindful of and rapidly introduce if there’s increased [respiratory viral] activity,’ he said.
 
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HMPV human metapneumovirus infectious disease outbreak


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