Ahmedabad: Amid the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) outbreak in China and with Gujarat reporting its first confirmed case in a two-month-old girl, health authorities have upped the ante, while emphasising that there is no reason for panic.
Pathology laboratories too have said that they detect six to 10 HMPV cases a year while running multiple tests on patients to determine the cause behind severe diseases. Doctors in the city have said the HMPV has been prevalent for the past few years and have advised citizens not to worry or cause panic as the virus is not found to be virulent in the majority of cases.
Dr Atul Patel, an infectious diseases specialist in Ahmedabad, said they had treated a patient with HMPV about six months ago. “When patients come with complaints of breathlessness or acute pneumonia and if the root cause is not clear, a multiplex PCR test is conducted to find the cause. The presence of HMPV was found through such a test as one of the causes,” he said.
Dr Bhavini Shah, co-founder and consultant microbiologist at Neuberg Supratech lab, said that on average, labs find six to seven cases of HMPV annually. “They are mostly part of the advanced kits or assays that are used to detect viral or bacterial or both illnesses in patients. The focus on the virus is new, but the virus itself is old and has been around for at least a decade,” she said.
“Even in our basic tests, I would put the cases to six to 10 a year when we are not trying to find HMPV,” said Dr Kamlesh Patel, senior consultant microbiologist at KD Hospital. “Its proliferation is typically high in samples collected in winter months. But in the cases detected with the virus, too, it has often manifested with mild symptoms. The need of the hour is to focus on overall preventive measures such as maintaining hygiene.”
Dr Abhay Shah, a city-based paediatric infectious diseases specialist, said that it is not a new virus and has been part of multi-disease tests for more than a decade. “There is no need to panic or go for tests on one’s own after the manifestation of symptoms – this must be decided by the treating doctor. It is more prevalent among children and infants as they have not been exposed to the virus earlier,” he said.
City-based pathology labs put the cost of tests that include HMPV to anything between Rs 3,000 to Rs 12,000 depending on the array of diseases the sample kit detects. Lab officials said that while the tests are mostly done on patients with severe illness or those in ICU, the actual number of patients with HMPV would be higher than the ones that are reported.
