Written questions, answers and statements

Viral Diseases

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Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN 22090, tabled on 6 January 2025

Question

Alicia Kearns
Conservative
Rutland and Stamford
Commons

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of human metapneumovirus have been identified in the UK.

Answer

Andrew Gwynne
Labour
Gorton and Denton
Commons

Answered on

9 January 2025

The UK Health Security Agency’s long-term surveillance of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) in England, through systems covering general practice surgeries and hospital laboratories, indicates that hMPV levels in winter 2024-25 are in line with what we would expect to see at this time of year.

Healthcare data for hMPV and other respiratory viruses comes from the sentinel surveillance system, a data collection method used to monitor trends. This means it is not a count of every person being treated for the respiratory virus in hospital. Total case numbers are therefore not held centrally.

Further information on data collection is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sources-of-surveillance-data-for-influenza-covid-19-and-other-respiratory-viruses

Answered by

Department of Health and Social Care
Named day
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