The Federal Government has advised Nigerians against being too worried about the Human Metapneumo Virus (HMPV), which was reported in China and some other countries.
Henzodaily reports that the Minister of State for Environment, Isiaq Salako, said the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) was already on high alert for the viral infection.
In an interview with Arise News Thursday night, Salako noted that the concern by Nigerians was right considering the experience of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
“Of course, if you also look at the analysis in Nigeria from the number one health security authority, which is the Nigerian Center for Disease Control, it also details that it is not something to start panicking about. Yes, the hypersensitivity sort of is good, because from the experience of COVID that you alluded to, we must be more alert. And I think that what we are seeing is an increased alertness of the global community,” he said.
He explained that the HMPV virus was detected in 2001 and would not pose too much danger in its management.
“The fact that the virus has been around for a while, unlike COVID, it is not a novel virus. It is really a good news. Because what it means is that the current infection will have resulted in some level of community immunity that would have been acquired.
“And so we expect that the outbreak based on science is not likely to be, even if it becomes a global outbreak, it’s not likely to spread as rapidly as COVID because some level of community immunity will have been acquired over time because of the current infection,” he stated.
The Minister of State for Environment also disclosed that information available to the World Health Organization from China showed the virus’ infection rate was also decreasing.
“I think that if we’ll listen to WHO first, which is the global health authority, the last advisory from WHO put the HMPV as a virus to monitor. The communication between the WHO and the China health authorities, the China CDC, also suggests that whereas in some parts of China, particularly in the northern parts, they’re seeing increased incidences of flu-like illnesses.
“They generally say that in this winter period around that place, they tend to have an increase of flu-like illnesses. And they also said that an analysis of those flu-like illnesses shows that it was mostly caused by influenza virus, some of them by HMPV, and a few others, particularly in children, by a bacteria that is called mycoplasma pneumonia.
“But by and large, the China authorities say that they have not witnessed increase in admissions, and they have not witnessed increase in hospital utilization. And I believe that some of this information, the WHO will have their own network of independent verification. So that’s the situation as it were,” Salako added.