Even as the world fixates on hMPV, a genuine pandemic threat is emerging in the form of H5N1 bird flu. The virus has jumped to cows and spread across the country through dairy herds, poultry farms and even zoos, infecting millions of animals and dozens of people, the vast majority of them farm workers.

And now, the human metapneumovirus, or HMPV for short, is infecting thousands of Americans around the country. The highly contagious virus, which belongs to the same group as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV),

In China, reports of HMPV infections have indeed been rising in recent weeks in the more northerly regions. But so have reports of all the other respiratory pathogens including seasonal flu, rhinovirus and RSV.

HMPV or Human metapneumovirus has caused panic around the world as people are fearing the return of Covid-like situation.

Five years on from the first news of COVID, recent reports of an obscure respiratory virus in China may understandably raise concerns.

How worried should you be about the HMPV outbreak in China?The Independent/ Lumen5

Authorities in Beijing have downplayed surge in cases, which comes five years after world was first alerted to emergence of Covid-19

HMPV is attracting a lot of interest because it is not a household name, but it was discovered in 2001, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in Geneva.