'Not a new strain': China dismisses 'scaremongering' over HMPV

Beijing on Jan 10 once again rejected claims labeling China's recent Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) as an “unknown virus,” and said such claims "run counter to basic scientific knowledge and scaremongering."

HMPV is not a “new strain,” and it has been present in the world for more than 60 years, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters.

To a question about people's worries about the safety of travel to China and notions like “an unknown virus appeared in China,” Jiakun said, "It is a common virus that causes upper respiratory tract infections, and its infections are characterized by self-limiting illnesses."

Jiakun's point was echoed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"The observed increase in respiratory pathogen detections is within the range expected for this time of year during the Northern Hemisphere winter," WHO said in a statement recently about HMPV infections in China.

The WHO noted that China has an established sentinel surveillance system for severe acute respiratory infections, including HMPV, which conducts routine virological surveillance for common respiratory pathogens with detailed reports published weekly on the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.

"Surveillance and laboratory data for HMPV are not available routinely from all countries," it added.

Speaking about the current influenza in China, Jiakun said that winter is usually the season with a higher frequency of respiratory infections in the Northern Hemisphere, and influenza viruses are one of the common pathogens.

"At the moment, the scale and intensity of infectious respiratory disease epidemics in China are lower than those of the same period last year," Jiakun said.

He emphasized that the Chinese government has always attached great importance to the health of its own people and foreign nationals in China.

In addition to the country's sentinel surveillance of a wide range of acute respiratory infectious diseases and the publication of the results, China's experts in disease control have also introduced scientific protective measures on many occasions, Jiakun said.

China also maintains close communication with the WHO to share timely information on respiratory diseases, he added.