{"id":399862,"date":"2023-10-02T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=399862"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"What-to-expect-for-the-flu-RSV-and-COVID-19-respiratory-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/What-to-expect-for-the-flu-RSV-and-COVID-19-respiratory-season\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect for the flu, RSV and COVID-19 respiratory season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and COVID-19 are all part of the seasonal respiratory virus lineup. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the upcoming fall and winter are expected to have a similar number of hospitalizations for respiratory diseases as last year. However, they say it\u2019s important to note that these hospitalization numbers are higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic when the leading causes were the flu and RSV.<\/p>\n

Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, says researchers in the Northern Hemisphere look to the trends in the Southern Hemisphere, where winter is ending, to help forecast the upcoming respiratory season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw in Australia that they had a typical to, in some areas, more severe influenza season. And that\u2019s what I expect this year is more of what we saw pre-pandemic,\u201d says Dr. Binnicker.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s an average year or a more severe year will be based on a few factors: how well people abide by all the lessons we learned about staying home when you\u2019re sick, masking if you\u2019re sick, getting your influenza vaccination, but also the type of virus that\u2019s circulating,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The CDC says the 2023 Southern Hemisphere flu vaccine reduced hospitalizations by 52%. If similar influenza virus strains spread in the Northern Hemisphere, the 2023-24 vaccine might provide equal protection.<\/p>\n

Strains of influenza<\/p>\n

Dr. Binnicker says there has been a predominance of a few different strains of influenza over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne is called H3N2 influenza A virus, a common influenza A virus that circulated for years. And then, in some areas, the pandemic strain from 2009, the H1N1 influenza strain, has also been in circulation. We typically see those influenza A strains anywhere from November to February or March here in the U.S.,\u201d says Dr. Binnicker.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also see a strain of influenza called influenza B, which usually causes a little bit less severe disease, and that typically comes up toward the tail end of the influenza season, in the February, March and April timeframe,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Preventing illness during respiratory season<\/p>\n

There are some unknowns in the outlook, including the timing, the specific virus strains and what new COVID-19 variant might emerge. That\u2019s why prevention is critical, says Dr. Binnicker.<\/p>\n

The good news is that there are vaccines for these three seasonal illnesses, including updated COVID-19 vaccines and new vaccines for the prevention of RSV in those 60 and older, infants and those who are pregnant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time in terms of prevention strategies for these viruses,\u201d says Dr. Binnicker. \u201cThen you get to the basics: good hand hygiene. If you\u2019re sick, stay home. If you have to get out, wear a mask if you have any of these symptoms. And then testing so we know what we\u2019re dealing with and can take good steps to prevent transmission to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re sick, stay home. If you have to get out, wear a mask.<\/p>\n

-Dreamstime
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Influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and COVID-19 are all part of the seasonal respiratory virus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}