NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Kids home sick from daycare with another mystery illness? It's the peak time of year for human metapneumovirus.
Dr. James Antoon at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt has 3 children under the age of 5. He said since September they've been sick with back-to-back viruses.
"I think everybody’s feeling that, and some of it has to do with lack of exposure and lack of immunity to these viruses in more recent years, and part of it’s just opening up our daycares and our schools without masks and our pandemic measures," Antoon said.
The masks have come off, and some young children are getting viruses for the first time.
"And perhaps having a little bit more of a severe illness than they would have otherwise," Antoon said. “In most children, it’s cold-like symptoms, fever, runny nose, cough — can cause croup in younger children and infants, and it can track down into the lower part of the lungs and cause bronchiolitis where there’s inflammation in the lungs, similar to RSV. It can also cause a viral pneumonia in the lungs or a metapneumovirus pneumonia."
He said hospitalizations for it haven't been too bad compared to flu and RSV.
"Human metapneumovirus was first discovered in 2001, but when we looked back in archive samples, we know it’s been around since the 1950s at least, so this is nothing new," Antoon said.
It can be treated with fluid, oxygen, and mechanical ventilation as a last resort. There's no vaccine or anti-viral medication to help.
"Handwashing is the best thing for metapneumovirus because it’s spread by droplets," Antoon said.
The sickness can also negatively impact adults over the age of 65.
