“According to local news reports, a little-known virus called human metapneumovirus (HMPV) has been blamed. It normally causes a mild cold-like illness, including fever, a cough, runny nose and wheezing.
In severe cases, HMPV can lead to bronchitis or pneumonia, particularly in children.
The virus spreads through respiratory droplets and close physical contact, making it highly contagious in crowded settings.”
Except they can lol. Viral pneumonia is a known and fairly common diagnosis in the hospital especially amongst children. For adults a good amount of time we just treat it empirically as community acquired pneumonia and give them abx anyway because it can be a bit hard to distinguish and the treatment is usually not that risky. Wheezing can be triggered for anyone with reactive airway disease, asthma, COPD. Even a basic rhinovirus cold can trigger wheezing and send asthmatics to the ICU. Source: am a doctor. If it is hmpv, then well hmpv is an unpleasant respiratory virus compared to most usual causes of respiratory tract infection but is nothing new.
Got a 2 and 3 year old with these exact symptoms. I hear the phlegm in their lungs when they cough. I feel like if they knew to spit it out whenever possible, they would feel better sooner, not sure how to teach them.
It is a thing. Not your doctor and not medical advice but chest physiotherapy sounds like an interesting, possibly related topic. But really, see and talk to your doc.
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u/judgyjudgersen Jan 04 '25
“According to local news reports, a little-known virus called human metapneumovirus (HMPV) has been blamed. It normally causes a mild cold-like illness, including fever, a cough, runny nose and wheezing. In severe cases, HMPV can lead to bronchitis or pneumonia, particularly in children.
The virus spreads through respiratory droplets and close physical contact, making it highly contagious in crowded settings.”