Patients struck by virus ravaging China describe horrific symptoms: ‘Worst I’ve ever felt’

Patients sickened by a little-known virus causing fear in China have described some of the horrific symptoms they endured.

Diane Davison, 60, a lawyer from Maryland, was struck by human metapneumovirus (HPMV) in April 2023 and was “unable to speak” due to “violent” coughing fits.

She initially thought it could be Covid or the flu as many of the symptoms overlap, including fever, cough, nasal congestion and sore throat.

After six negative Covid tests, Ms Davison, who has a weakened immune system, knew something was wrong. Of all the respiratory infections she’d had in her life, this was “the worst I’ve ever experienced,” she said.

Of her ordeal, she said: “I couldn’t say more than a few words. I started coughing violently and violently to the point where I literally almost threw up.”

After further tests and exchanges of her nose and throat, doctors discovered that the lawyer actually had HMPV. Mrs Davison said: ‘I thought, ‘What?’ Because it sounds really bad.”

HMPV, which some doctors have described as “the most important virus you’ve never heard of,” is blamed for a virus outbreak in China that is reportedly overwhelming hospitals in the country’s northern provinces.

Beijing has played down images of crowded waiting rooms and wards on social media, saying respiratory infections are “less severe” and “smaller in size” compared to last year.

But some fear there are similarities with the current situation and the 2019 Covid outbreak, which was initially downplayed by China.

Dr. John Williams, a pediatrician at the University of Pittsburgh who has spent his career researching vaccines and treatments for HMPV, says the pathogen is one of the viruses most likely to hospitalize people and even kill children and vulnerable people. deaths, because there are no vaccines or medicines to treat it.

HMPV is similar to other seasonal viruses such as RSV, which cause symptoms of the common cold. HMPV is believed to be responsible for approximately 1 in 10 respiratory illnesses in children.

Although most cases are mild, some patients may develop a lower respiratory tract infection such as pneumonia or, as in Ms Davison’s case, bronchitis, inflammation of the bronchial tubes in the lungs, leading to coughing and other symptoms.

Ms Davison was ill for about a month and then got better, but she has urged others not to dismiss the infection as mild.

American TikTok creator @alymoreno32 claimed in one of her clips that her baby was hit by HMPV in March 2024.

She said his condition rapidly deteriorated and he was rushed back to hospital after he could no longer breathe.

The mother of three wrote in the comments section: “He sounded so bad. (He) wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t move.”

HMPV was first identified in 2001 and infects thousands of Americans each year. According to the latest CDC data, just under 300 positive test results were reported in the last week of December, which is normal for this time of year.

The CDC says it is “monitoring” the cases in China but believes they are “not currently a cause for concern in the US.”

Approximately 20,000 children under the age of five in the US are hospitalized with HMPV each year, and several hundred of those die from the disease.

The US CDC said it is “monitoring” the cases in China but believes they are “not currently a cause for concern in the US.”

The situation in China is similar to an outbreak in the winter of 2023/2024, when hospitals were flooded with patients with mycoplasma pneumoniae.

The condition, called “white lung” because of the small white spots it leaves on X-rays of the lungs, is usually mild, similar to HMPV.

But that outbreak was partly linked to weak population immunity in China due to draconian lockdowns and anti-Covid measures, which were among the toughest in the world.

Experts say a lack of exposure to seasonal germs makes people vulnerable if they eventually become infected, especially children.

Commenting on the current situation in China, Dr Andrew Catchpole, head of scientific research at research organization hVIVO, said: ‘HMPV is usually detected in the winter period, but it appears that the numbers of serious infections in China may be higher than we would expect. expected in a normal year.

‘We need more information about the specific strain circulating to understand whether these are the usual circulating strains or whether the virus causing high infection rates in China has some differences.’

Beijing has acknowledged the rise in HMPV cases, attributing it to a seasonal peak.

In northern China, the continued rise in HMPV cases corresponds with the region’s cold temperatures, which are expected to last until March.

Other northern hemispheres, including but not limited to China, are experiencing increased prevalence of HMPV, Jacqueline Stephens, an epidemiologist at Flinders University in Australia, told the BBC.

“While this is concerning, the increased prevalence is likely the normal seasonal increase in winter,” she said.

HMPV was discovered in 2001 by Dutch researchers from samples taken from children in the Netherlands with unexplained respiratory infections.

Some were seriously ill and had to be on a ventilator, but did not test positive for pathogens.

The scientists looked at the genes of the virus and saw that it was closely related to the avian metapneumovirus, which infects birds.

The new virus was named human metapneumovirus.

The researchers think it jumped from birds to humans and then evolved.

As with the flu, infants and the elderly are most at risk because their immune systems are still developing or deteriorating.

HMPV is spread by direct or close contact with an infected person, such as coughing, shaking hands, sneezing, or touching infected objects or surfaces.

One study found that it is the second most common cause of respiratory infections in children, after respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms but hits babies and older adults harder.

HMPV and RSV belong to the family Pneumoviridae.

Although HMPV mutates and changes over time and new strains emerge, Dr. Catchpole that ‘it is not a virus that we think has pandemic potential’.

He explains: ‘This is because the changes in HMPV are gradual and based on previously circulating strains.

‘Pandemics arise when a completely new virus invades the human population, as with Covid.

‘Or in the case of influenza, when a completely new variant of the virus invades the human population by combining a human version of the virus with that of an animal version of the virus from the so-called animal reservoir.

‘There is no known animal reservoir of related viruses for HMPV.

‘This means that even if the HMPV in China is currently a new variant of the virus, it will most likely be significantly related to previously circulating HMPV strains, so that there will be some level of pre-existing immunity against exposure to previously related viruses . , which will significantly reduce the burden of disease in healthy people.’