As respiratory diseases enter a peak period in winter, multiple foreign media outlets have been exaggerating reports of a surge in human metapneumovirus (HMPV) cases in China, claiming that it has overwhelmed local hospitals.

The World Health Organization says it has been confirmed that acute respiratory infections caused by human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, are spreading in China. However, a WHO spokesperson suggested there is little cause for concern.

China has not declared a state of emergency. PolitiFact checked multiple Chinese and U.S. government websites and found no public health emergency announcements. One of the respiratory viruses social media posts are spotlighting is human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, which was discovered in 2001. It causes coldlike symptoms and most cases are mild.

China has responded after the World Health Organization ( WHO) again urged it to disclose data that could shed more light on the origins of COVID-19, which killed over 7 million people worldwide. Newsweek reached out to the WHO by email with a request for comment.

The posts are mostly false. Chinese authorities have reported an increase in some respiratory infections, but the increases are in line with seasonal trends and no state of emergency has been declared.

The pictures emerging are arresting: a hospital waiting room in Beijing, full of masked patients apparently attached to drips; crowds of mask-wearing commuters making their way through the city. If it all seems unnervingly familiar,

Cases are climbing in China, but the situation is very different from when COVID-19 emerged five years ago, medical experts say. HMPV is common and decades old.

First discovered in 2001, HMPV is a “common virus that circulates in winter and spring”, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). China and other countries in Asia have seen an uptick in cases involving the respiratory virus in recent weeks,

The Indonesian Ministry of Health has emphasized that the Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) detected in China is not a virus to be overly concerned about, as it has been prese

With another case of the Human Metapneumovirus or hMPV reported in Mumbai, the total tally is now eight cases in India`. The cases have been reported in Nagpur, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Salem.

A disease expert has urged China to share infection data amid an outbreak of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) which has spread across four countries.Dr Sanjaya Senanayake, infectious disease expert associate professor of medicine at The Australian National University,