Baby detected with HMPV in Bengaluru hospital, city’s 1st case

KARNATAK, JAN 6 : An eight-month-old baby was detected with the HMPV virus in Bengaluru, making it the first case in the city. The case came to notice in the popular Baptist Hospital in the northern part of the city. The state health department however clarified they didn’t get the sample tested in their lab. “The reports have come from a private hospital and we have no reason to doubt the tests of the private hospital,” a health department source said.

The HMPV, or human metapneumovirus, is usually detected in children under the age of 11 and about 0.7 per cent of all flu samples are HMPV.

“We don’t know what strain of virus this is yet, because we don’t have data on what the strain of the virus detected in China is,” the source said.

The state health department, on Saturday, released a statement-cum-advisory after China warned about the outbreak of HMPV in the country. In the Saturday’s government release, it was stated “there has been no case of HMPV reported in the State of Karnataka”, making the case of the eight-month-old the first such case in the state.

In the release, the health department stated that after analysing the data on prevailing respiratory infections within Karnataka, there was no significant increase in the reported number of cases in December 2024 compared to the previous year.

According to the government of India, HMPV cases have been reported in India in the past.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George, on Saturday, said the state was closely monitoring the situation and was readying the state to deal with cases, in case of an outbreak.

-PTI