Why the Respiratory Disease RSV Is Having an Off-Season Surge

Dr. James Antoon, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, often goes an entire summer without diagnosing a single case of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The common illness, which typically results in mild, cold-like symptoms but can be severe in infants and elderly adults, usually goes along with the winter flu season. But this summer, RSV cases are spiking, particularly in southern states. Around 2,000 confirmed cases were recorded across the U.S. during the week of July 10, 2021, compared to less than a dozen during the week of July 25, 2020. The actual number of infections is likely higher, since clinicians may not test sick children for RSV outside its usual season, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a recent advisory. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The spike is somewhat logical, even if the timing is unusual. When the pandemic hit, sending people inside and behind masks, respiratory illnesses like RSV circulated at “historically low levels,” the CDC said in a report published today. Now that people are easing up on COVID-19 precautions, they are also coming back into contact with pathogens that have existed, but weren’t spreading much, throughout the pandemic. RSV infections began to tick upward in April 2021, the CDC says. In the U.S., RSV case counts are “incredibly high for the summer,” Antoon says, “but it’s about on par with what we see in...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news