But this time it’s not Covid-19 doing the damage. Instead, doctors are struggling to cope with high rates of sickness caused by a different organism known as human metapneumovirus or HMPV.
The virus causes cold and flu-like symptoms but can be dangerous to certain groups, particularly children and the elderly.
And, worryingly, other countries are also reporting a spike in cases – which have doubled in the UK in just a month.
So how concerned should you be – and could this be the start of the next pandemic? Here’s everything you need to know…
HMPV belongs to the same family of infectious bugs as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is already a common source of the lung infection bronchiolitis during winter – hospitalising around 30,000 children and 18,000 adults in the UK every year.
Respiratory viruses spike in winter because we spend more time indoors and in closer proximity to each other, allowing bugs to spread more easily.
HMPV was first officially identified by a team of Dutch scientists in 2001 but some evidence suggests it’s been circulating for hundreds of years.
You may not have heard of it because it is just one of many viruses (at least 200 at the last count) known to cause cold and flu symptoms in the UK every year.
In fact, it’s estimated almost every child
in the country has had at least one HMPV infection by the time they
reach their fifth birthday which, in most cases, would have presented as
just a bit of a sniffle....<<<Read More>>>...
