The Health Ministry says 34 cases of hMPV were confirmed in T&T between 2019 and 2024.
As such, it says this goes against a claim made in a local media report that a private lab confirmed the country’s first case of the virus in November last year.
In a statement issued today, the Ministry said, “It must be noted that the Minister of Health and the Chief Medical Officer have stated publicly that the hMPV is not new to the world, including the region of the Americas and Trinidad and Tobago, and has been detected worldwide as early as 2001. These statements were based on epidemiological information from the World Health Organization (WHO), PAHO as well as the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).”
It says data from the Trinidad Public Health Laboratory, based on tests conducted at CARPHA’s laboratory, noted the following confirmed cases of hMPV in Trinidad and Tobago during the period 2019 to 2024:
The Ministry also reminded that hMPV is not a notifiable disease at this time, which means there is no statutory requirement for reporting.
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