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Human Metapneumovirus Is Finally Being Taken Seriously
The attention being paid to a Chinese outbreak of a virus often confused with flu is a sign that respiratory infection tracking is improving.
He explains that one of the consequences of Covid has been a recognition of the need for greater surveillance of circulating respiratory viruses, meaning that hMPV case numbers are being detected by epidemiologists for the first time. According to Vermund, the Ragon Institute in Massachusetts is working on ways of trying to reduce the price of respiratory virus testing to under $6 per patient, with the ultimate goal of driving the cost down to less than $1. While the virus won’t trigger the next pandemic, it still afflicts such a significant number of people that it’s a major drain on public health systems, as well as being a long-underrecognized cause of mortality in the vulnerable.
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