Respiratory Diseases are on the Rise Again
Studies by medical researchers and the CDC say we could face a winter season with numerous threats to our health.
Heading into the winter flu season experts are divided about how much of a problem respiratory infection will be this year.
At the end of November, Dr. Mandy Cohen, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, told a House Subcommittee in Washington that so far, the flu season has not seen any extraordinary developments. Infections, she testified, are quickly rising and levels of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, another common winter virus, are also increasing. Still, the rates of hospitalizations for the flu, RSV and COVID, she said, are below what they have been for the past two years.
Cohen told House members that monitor the CDC that RSV levels, however, are “near peak,” and the highest they’ve been since 2020. She said that the flu season is “accelerating fast.” So far, hospitalizations for the flu are the highest they’ve been in the last six years, with the exception that at this time last year they were higher.
Dr. Cohen told the House Subcommittee that COVID is “still the respiratory virus putting the greatest number of folks in the hospital and taking lives.” She estimated that the virus could push the number of hospitalizations during the winter to 15,000 admissions a week.
Experts at Johns Hopkins Canter for Health Security, which has one of the nation’s most extensive monitoring programs for respiratory infections, expects this year to be a more normal season, with the exception that the COVID-19 virus will have a major impact on hospitalizations and mortality.
While doctors recommend the most recent versions of the COVID booster, acceptance of the shots has been low. According to the CDC, only about 16 percent of adults and 7 percent of children have been vaccinated.
Carlos Del Rio, a leading authority on epidemiology and global health and the interim chief academic officer at Emory Healthcare, emphasizes the importance of getting the shot, particularly for children, the elderly, and those with immunity issues.
“This vaccine is not a booster. This is updating your immunity to a new variant,” says Del Rio. “These vaccines are really good at protecting you against severe disease, death and hospitalization, especially people with higher risks.”
Masking, which has largely been abandoned except by those who most feel at risk, also may be warranted, particularly when we are with others for an extended period in close quarter, such as on airline flights or in a crowded synagogue event.
Seema Lakdawala, an Emory medical researcher, believes that masks can work, and that one of the most important lessons of the pandemic is that they can be an effective barrier to disease.
“I advocate for everyone to wear masks during flu season,” she says. “I think we should normalize masking if you’re at a higher risk for infection from respiratory viruses, if you’re immunocompromised, or you’re elderly. And, also, if you’re not feeling well. Masking allows us a way to come back into society and not feel like we have to quarantine every time we have a respiratory illness.”
A recent article in the British Medical Journal suggested that the COVID virus may have also contributed to the surge in RSV cases last year and may have contributed to the long-term effect on the immune and respiratory systems.
Patients with the lingering effects of a COVID infection have complained of joint pain, extreme fatigue, and neurological disorders such as brain fog and depression.
Scientists are still trying to understand why some patients who have been infected with the COVID virus struggle with conditions that affect their mood and memory, energy levels and functioning of their nervous system. But recent studies indicate that those who already suffer from conditions that affect their heart and bodily metabolism, like diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure may be at greater risk for the lingering effects of the COVID virus.
A study in the British medical journal, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, of more than 1,300 patients in China concluded that over half of them still had at least one symptom of the disease three years after contracting the virus.
Researchers at a hospital in Beijing also discovered that patients who had long COVID were at a higher risk for pneumonia and repeat cases of COVID.
Other studies have shown that long COVID occurs in 5 percent to 30 percent of people who have had the virus.
The December holidays are a prime time for respiratory infections to occur. Not only is there more social interaction, but we mingle more with those from other parts of the country, which, according to the experts, may make for more infections.
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