The current landscape regarding hMPV infections around the world is perplexing.
Image Credit: hVIVO
Since early January, hMPV (or human metapneumovirus) has appeared in news feeds almost daily, following reports of a substantial surge of infections in China. More recently, China has reported that the rate of new hMPV infections in the country is now declining.
These reports have triggered a wave of articles across news outlets, some featuring inflammatory headlines and others adopting a more balanced tone. When taken out of context, reports that cases have doubled within a week in the USA can sound alarming, but this virus is known to circulate during winter and spring. Such patterns are not unusual and are expected for hMPV and other seasonal respiratory viruses.
Fear of the unknown
Among virologists, hMPV has long been understood to be a critical respiratory pathogen, well before it hit the headline news in 2025. Despite the COVID pandemic creating many so-called “armchair virologists”, it is fair to say that, before January, hMPV was not a commonly known name. In fact, much of the general public had never heard of hMPV.
Images of hospitals overwhelmed by virus infections naturally revive recent memories from the early stages of the COVID pandemic. Combined with the unfamiliar name of the virus, this may explain the concern that has been raised across news outlets and online.
Welcome clarification
In response to the swarm of media surrounding hMPV, the WHO clarified its exact understanding of the situation in China. The organization explained that the “surge” of hMPV infections was, in fact, within normal and anticipated levels for this time of year.
During Dr. Harris’ statement, emphasis was placed on the fact that the majority of new respiratory infections in China were still being caused by seasonal influenza rather than hMPV. This served as a reminder that the flu continues to represent a greater burden, with struggling healthcare systems most impacted due to hospitalization rates.
Increased public awareness helps fuel research
Nevertheless, hMPV remains a significant pathogen, and its increased media attention is not unwelcome. Greater awareness of viruses that continue to cause substantial human disease and suffering is undoubtedly beneficial; increased awareness often leads to increased research funding and, ultimately, enhanced medical countermeasures.
While hMPV is already well recognized within the scientific community, it is not nearly as extensively studied as influenza or RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), either in academia or in industrial vaccine and treatment development. This is perhaps unsurprising given that hMPV was only discovered in 2001, far more recently than RSV or influenza, which have been known about for much longer.
Moreover, the Pneumoviridae virus family, which includes both RSV and hMPV, was long considered highly challenging in effective vaccine development. This perception began to shift with the discovery of the importance of the pre-fusion formation of RSV’s F protein as the appropriate vaccine target.
Vaccines designed to elicit antibodies specifically targeting the pre-fusion formation of virus’ F protein, known as the pre-F vaccines, have fundamentally transformed the field and demonstrated that effective vaccines are achievable.
Challenge studies derisk vaccine development
Developing a vaccine based on any completely new construct or scientific strategy always carries risks, especially with respect to achieving the desired protective effect. Human viral challenge models have long been regarded as an ideal method for mitigating the risk of costly large-scale vaccine trial failure.
This is because they involve the direct inoculation of healthy study participants with the virus of interest, allowing vaccine efficacy to be directly tested in a highly controlled environment and requiring far fewer study participants than traditional trials. hVIVO is proud of its major role in bringing the world’s first effective RSV vaccines to market through the use of its RSV challenge model.
The model provided the first-ever demonstration of vaccine efficacy in humans for RSV pre-F vaccines. This discovery led to the assessment of several RSV pre-F vaccines using the model, and the successful proof-of-concept outcomes from these challenge studies were instrumental in accelerating RSV vaccines to market.
RSV vaccine success fuels hMPV vaccine development
Recently, the success of RSV vaccines has led several biotech and pharma RSV research teams to shift their focus to hMPV. As a result, multiple promising hMPV vaccines are now in the development pipeline.
However, most have not yet reached the development stage of efficacy testing in humans, and none have yet demonstrated efficacy in preventing or substantially reducing the burden of hMPV disease.
High hopes for the hMPV challenge model
Following this trend of RSV vaccine research teams transitioning to working on hMPV, hVIVO has leveraged its challenge model development expertise over the past year to develop an hMPV challenge model, culminating in a pilot challenge study late last year.
As reported earlier last week, the pilot study was extremely successful, showing that an effective hMPV challenge model could be established with sufficient infection rates observed and, as anticipated, under safe and controlled conditions. The hMPV challenge model is anticipated to help accelerate hMPV vaccine development, just as the RSV model did for RSV vaccines, ultimately helping to control this important global pathogen and save lives.
Thought Leadership piece by Andrew Catchpole - Chief Scientific Officer
Andrew first studied virology at the University of Warwick before undertaking postgraduate research for a DPhil in influenza replication at Oxford University. Since then, he has applied his scientific expertise in a commercial environment.
After working as part of a multidisciplinary R&D team developing nuclear medicine research instruments at GE Healthcare, he then returned to the field of virology to join hVIVO, an industry-leading service provider of human viral challenge studies (controlled human infection studies).
Andrew is now recognized as an expert in human viral challenge studies, having played major roles in the development of influenza, RSV, HRV, and SARS-CoV-2 challenge models at hVIVO. He has overseen the design and execution of a variety of antiviral, immunomodulator, and vaccine product efficacy studies.
Currently, he works as Chief Scientific Officer, leading scientific strategy for the company. A major part of his role is to provide scientific consultancy, both internally and externally, to hVIVO’s customers and collaborators on challenge study design, laboratory sample analysis, and data interpretation, as well as overseeing the company’s challenge agent production activities.
About hVIVO
hVIVO is a full-service early phase CRO offering end-to-end drug development services from preclinical consultancy through to Phase III clinical trials, including world-leading end-to-end human challenge trials services. With decades of experience in rapidly delivering data for our global client base, our team brings together strategic insight and operational expertise to deliver a variety of clinical study types across multiple locations.
To support rapid study start-up and reliable delivery, our dedicated recruitment teams in Germany and the UK provide direct access to both healthy volunteers and patient populations. This is complemented by our integrated drug development consultancy, as well as our infectious disease and immunology laboratories and biobanking services.
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