{"id":11595,"date":"2026-03-04T19:54:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T01:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11595"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T01:54:34","slug":"a-virus-that-isnt-covid-or-the-flu-is-pummeling-northern-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/03\/04\/a-virus-that-isnt-covid-or-the-flu-is-pummeling-northern-california\/","title":{"rendered":"A virus that isn\u2019t COVID or the flu is pummeling Northern California"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/hmpv-barking-cough-california-21951045.php\">SF Gate<\/a> Human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, typically spreads during winter and spring. If you notice that your office is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/flu-strain-bay-area-21343720.php\" class=\"\">emptying out<\/a>, chances are it\u2019s because a respiratory virus that few people have actually heard of is circulating throughout Northern California.\u00a0 According to recent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/data.wastewaterscan.org\/?selectedLocation=%7B%22label%22%3A%22Southeast%20San%20Francisco,%20CA%22,%22level%22%3A%22plant%22,%22value%22%3A%22e9e87e61%22%7D&amp;charts=CjIQACABSABaBkhNUFZfNHIKMjAyNi0wMS0xOHIKMjAyNi0wMy0wMYoBBjZlMTg3ZcABAQ%3D%3D&amp;selectedChartId=6e187e&amp;plantId=e9e87e61\" class=\"\">WastewaterSCAN data<\/a>, concentrations of human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, are high in San Francisco, Marin, Vallejo, Napa, Novato, Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Davis. The respiratory illness, which typically lasts from winter through spring, causes familiar symptoms like cough, fever and congestion, and spreads through contaminated surfaces, the air and person-to-person contact. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/human-metapneumovirus\/about\/index.html\" class=\"\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>\u00a0says that the virus leads to mild illness in healthy children, but can also cause less-common symptoms like bronchiolitis \u2014 an infection of the airways \u2014 and croup, described as a \u201cbarking\u201d cough. The distinct cough, which the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/croup\/symptoms-causes\/syc-20350348\" class=\"\">Mayo Clinic<\/a>\u00a0describes as similar to a seal barking, is most common among small children. Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at&nbsp;UC San Francisco, said that because COVID-19 was \u201cquieter\u201d this season, \u201cother viruses like influenza and HMPV are getting their chance.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These illnesses \u201ccompete with each other,\u201d she explained to\u00a0SFGATE on Monday. \u201cWhen we had big\u00a0COVID surges, we saw really low rates of other common cold viruses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/hmpv-barking-cough-california-21951045.php\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" style=\"display: none;\" title=\"fI PP K\"><!-- fI PP K --><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SF Gate Human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, typically spreads during winter and spring. If you notice that your office is\u00a0emptying out, chances are it\u2019s because a respiratory virus that few people have actually heard of is circulating throughout Northern California.\u00a0 According to recent\u00a0WastewaterSCAN data, concentrations of human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, are high in San Francisco, Marin, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emerging-infectious-diseases","category-featured-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11596,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11595\/revisions\/11596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}