{"id":11645,"date":"2026-03-11T20:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11645"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:12:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:12:53","slug":"a-little-known-respiratory-virus-human-metapneumovirus-surging-in-northern-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/03\/11\/a-little-known-respiratory-virus-human-metapneumovirus-surging-in-northern-california\/","title":{"rendered":"A little-known respiratory virus, human metapneumovirus, surging in Northern California"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Univ of California, Davis<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems face the greatest risk of serious illness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(SACRAMENTO)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you came down with a respiratory infection this spring that wasn\u2019t the flu or COVID-19, it may have been a virus you\u2019ve never heard of: Human metapneumovirus or HMPV<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The virus was first discovered in 2001<\/a> but is less well known than its viral relative, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). Both are in the Pneumoviridae family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HMPV is seasonal \u2014 like the annual flu \u2014 and it is currently spiking in the U.S., according to the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS<\/a>), which monitors viral activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WastewaterSCAN<\/a> data, which tracks pathogens in wastewater, also shows high levels of HMPV in Northern California, including in Sacramento, Davis, Vallejo and San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HMPV spreads through direct or close contact with an infected person, including exposure to respiratory droplets, large-particle aerosols, or fomites<\/a>, which are contaminated objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infection transmits by coughing and sneezing, close personal contact (touching or shaking hands), or touching contaminated objects or surfaces, then touching the mouth, nose or eyes.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Univ of California, Davis Young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems face the greatest risk of serious illness (SACRAMENTO) If you came down with a respiratory infection this spring that wasn\u2019t the flu or COVID-19, it may have been a virus you\u2019ve never heard of: Human metapneumovirus or HMPV. The virus was first […]<\/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-11645","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\/11645","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=11645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11647,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11645\/revisions\/11647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}