Beijing has made a fresh rebuke to some voices labeling China's recent cases of infection with human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, as an "unknown virus", calling such claims "run counter to basic scientific knowledge and scaremongering".

According to authorities in charge, HMPV is not a "new strain", and it has been present in the human world for more than 60 years, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Friday.

"It is a common virus that causes upper respiratory tract infections, and its infections are characterized by self-limiting illnesses," the spokesman said at a daily news conference when asked about some people's worries about the safety of travel to China and notions such as "an unknown virus appeared in China".

Guo's point was echoed in a statement by the World Health Organization, or WHO, about HMPV infections in China on Tuesday, which said, "The observed increase in respiratory pathogen detections is within the range expected for this time of year during the Northern Hemisphere winter".

The WHO noted that China has an established sentinel surveillance system for severe acute respiratory infections, including HMPV, which conducts routine virological surveillance for common respiratory pathogens with detailed reports published weekly on the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.

"Surveillance and laboratory data for HMPV are not available routinely from all countries," it added.

Speaking about the current influenza in China, Guo, the spokesman, said winter is usually the season with a higher frequency of respiratory infections in the Northern Hemisphere, and influenza viruses are one of the common pathogens.

"At the moment, the scale and intensity of infectious respiratory disease epidemics in China are lower than those of the same period last year," Guo said.

He emphasized that the Chinese government has always attached great importance to the health of its own people and foreign nationals in China.

In addition to the country's sentinel surveillance of a wide range of acute respiratory infectious diseases and the publication of the results, China's experts in disease control have also introduced scientific protective measures on many occasions, he noted.

China also maintains close communication with the WHO to share timely information on respiratory diseases, he added.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn