India has "no unusual surge" in cases of severe acute respiratory or influenza-like illnesses, the health ministry said on Monday after routine surveillance in Gujarat and Karnataka picked up human metapneumovirus (HMPV), a microbe circulating in the country since at least 2016.

Health authorities have detected HMPV in a three-month-old girl and an eight-month-old boy in a Bengaluru hospital and a two-month-old boy in Ahmedabad. HMPV, which can cause respiratory illness, has been circulating worldwide, including in India, for years.

The cases were detected through routine surveillance for multiple respiratory viruses as part of the Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR) efforts to monitor respiratory infections in the country, the ministry said.

"Based on the current data from the ICMR and the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, there has been no unusual surge in ILI or severe acute respiratory illnesses in the country," the ministry said. "The ICMR will continue to track trends in HMPV circulation throughout the year.”

HMPV is a common virus that causes an upper respiratory tract infection like a cold and typically occurs during the winter. People with HMPV have mild symptoms like those of a cold but young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems may develop severe disease. In severe cases, patients may experience wheezing, breathing difficulty and asthma flare-ups. In some cases, secondary lower respiratory tract infections may occur, leading to pneumonia.

Chinese health authorities had announced last month that they were monitoring an upward trend in various respiratory infections, including HMPV.

India’s health ministry had said on January 4 that the situation in China is “not unusual in view of the ongoing flu season” and that reports suggest that the surge in China is because of influenza, HMPV and other microbes expected during this season.

The health ministry has said physicians from hospitals in India have confirmed there is no surge in respiratory cases other than the expected seasonal variation. As a precautionary measure, the ICMR will enhance the number of labs in the country for testing HMPV.

Multiple hospitals have documented HMPV in the country over the past eight years. Microbiologists at the Sawai Man Singh Medical College, Jaipur, had in 2016 detected HMPV in nearly 25 per cent of 155 cases of severe acute respiratory illness in infants.

Doctors at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, had documented 113 cases of HMPV among 4,519 cases of severe acute respiratory illness in children from January 2021 to June 2024. The doctors had described their findings as pointing to a “significant prevalence” of HMPV in Puducherry.

In recent years, doctors in Gorakhpur, Manipal and Chandigarh have also detected HMPV in children under treatment for severe acute respiratory infections.