Public health professionals need to communicate proactively to avoid concerns: experts on HMPV

The need for public health professionals to proactively reach out to people with the right information rather than waiting for people to become concerned about information circulating on social media was emphasised during a webinar that sought to put out facts about Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV).

The need for public health professionals to proactively reach out to people with the right information rather than waiting for them to become concerned about information circulating on social media was emphasised during a webinar that sought to put out facts about Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV).

The webinar — HMPV: Differentiating Fact from Fiction — was organised by The Hindu and Naruvi Hospitals, Vellore, as a part of their ‘Healthy India, Happy India’ initiative on Saturday (January 11, 2025). Soumya Swaminathan, chairperson, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, and former chief scientist at World Health Organization (WHO), emphasised the need to create more scientific literacy and scientific awareness to avoid the kind of panic that was seen when news of HMPV came out.

Bernhard Schwartländer, epidemiologist and former WHO official, observed that not much thought has gone into developing new ways of communicating more proactively. “It is no good to wait for the public to be concerned about information circulating on social media platforms when it is very difficult to then actually overcome it. As public health workers, we have to be much more proactive to reach out to people to explain what is going on. It is not good enough to have scientific statements hidden on websites of the national centre for disease control because that is not where people will look every day. We have to learn to do better to avoid such concerns,” he said.

On the HMPV situation in China, he said that the country has a strong surveillance system and what they have seen so far is an expected increase in respiratory infections, which until now is somewhat lower than compared to the same time in the previous years. The distribution of the viruses was also not dissimilar to previous outbreaks with the influenza virus being clearly in the lead, and a whole range of other viruses coming behind.

“We have been exposed to HMPV for a long time. It is not a new virus, and therefore, we have immunity, and most children are exposed to it. It is a part of the common respiratory infections that children get,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said. She added that HMPV is considered as a mild infection causing upper respiratory illnesses. It has not been a major cause of mortality or morbidity.

She stressed the need to take the ‘One Health’ approach considering the increasing risk of viruses and pathogens jumping from one species to another. It is important to understand the interconnections between various species and human beings, she added.

“COVID-19 pandemic has sensitised everyone to the threat of viruses. Unfortunately, we do live in an era where it is becoming more likely that we will have both known as well as emerging viruses that may be infecting other species in the world but which make a jump to humans and then are able to infect one human to another, and that is how outbreaks of new viruses begin among human beings,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said. She went on to add the need to be prepared for the future to live with viruses — both known and new — and for governments to build resilient healthcare systems.