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monkeybusinessimages \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n <\/span> \nRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has hit the US harder and earlier than usual this year, and while children have primarily been affected, older Americans are also seeing a rise in hospitalizations from the illness.\n<\/p>\n \nAs of the week ending Nov. 12, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows adults ages 65 and older are being hospitalized at a weekly rate of 2.4 per 100,000. During the same period in 2021, the weekly hospitalization rate for seniors was 1.5 per 100,000\u2014and in pre-pandemic times, it was even lower than that.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cCOVID has not respected any of the traditional respiratory virus seasons and as a result, it has really turned RSV upside down,\u201d John Sellick, DO, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, told Health. <\/em>\u201cWith that much RSV in the kiddie population, we\u2019re seeing the spillover into the older population.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nSo why are older adults also seeing RSV infections\u2014and ultimately, hospitalizations\u2014in higher numbers too? Here\u2019s what experts have to say about why that population may be more likely to experience severe illness, and how to manage and prevent the illness\u2014without a vaccine or targeted treatments.\n<\/p>\n What Is a Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nDuring typical years, RSV still disproportionately affects children and, to some extent, older adults; but the virus usually peaks between late December and early February. The COVID pandemic, however, has altered the virus' normal patterns.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cAll bets are off this year,\u201d Jonathan D. Grein, MD, infectious disease specialist and director of Hospital Epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai, told Health<\/em>. \u201cThis is a unique experience we\u2019re going through after two years of relatively low flu and RSV activity. Going into this season, with a lot of the precautions for COVID being taken away, it\u2019s really going to be hard to predict how the season will pan out.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThis has led to high RSV cases for all age groups, seniors included\u2014RSV hospitalizations in general have more than tripled as compared to this point in 2021.<\/span>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nAs for why cases are so high right now, experts said the answer likely lies in part with the fact that masking, social distancing, and hand washing measures have been largely deemphasized this fall, Dr. Grein said. People likely also have less \u201cintrinsic immunity\u201d to RSV now because they weren\u2019t exposed to RSV during the worst months of the pandemic, he added.\n<\/p>\n \nFor people over 65 specifically, they\u2019re likely catching RSV from the younger people that have it.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI think it has something to do with the kids also going back to school, because, as you know, RSV is traditionally considered a pediatric disease,\u201d Daphne-Dominique Villanueva, MD, transplant infectious disease physician and assistant professor at West Virginia University Medicine, told Health. <\/em>\u201cBut [they] can spread it to older adults, especially when they visit grandparents.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAnd with cases as high as they are now, Dr. Sellick is concerned that the coming weeks could bring even more opportunities for sick children and adults to spread RSV.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe tend to see a lot of RSV after the holidays and we\u2019ve always presumed that this means that you\u2019ve got multi-generational family events between Thanksgiving and the New Year,\u201d said Dr. Sellick. \u201cYou\u2019ve got little kids with RSV who are more than happy to share it with mom and dad and grandma and grandpa.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nBut there is somewhat of a silver lining: The high numbers of hospitalizations are more a reflection of how people are behaving, more so than the virus itself becoming more transmissible or deadly, according to experts.\n<\/p>\n \nThough RNA viruses like RSV do mutate in minor ways fairly frequently, Drs. Sellick and Grein agreed that there\u2019s no evidence to suggest that this year\u2019s high number of hospitalizations and cases are linked to any new kind of RSV variant.\n<\/p>\n What Is a 'Tripledemic'? Experts Warn COVID, Flu, and RSV May Converge This Winter<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nFor the majority of people, RSV presents as a mild cold, with coughing, sneezing, a runny nose, and fever. But in some cases, particularly for older people, young infants, or the immunocompromised, the virus can become dangerous.<\/span>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt will usually start as flu-like symptoms,\u201d said Dr. Villanueva. \u201cHowever, their symptoms can progress to more severe pneumonia such as shortness of breath, wheezing, those other symptoms. So those are signs that they need to go to the hospital.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThese more severe RSV symptoms can strike seniors especially hard because many may have underlying health conditions that make it more difficult for their bodies to recover from the virus.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cAs you age, your immune system weakens a bit. Also as we age, we tend to collect more medical comorbidities,\u201d said Dr. Grein. \u201cSo with RSV we know, for example, people with underlying heart disease or chronic lung disease are certainly at high risk of poor outcomes.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nRSV can make conditions like asthma, COPD, or congestive heart failure worse, and in some cases, can cause death. The CDC estimates that each year, between 60,000 and 120,000 older adults are hospitalized with RSV, and between 6,000 and 10,000 will die from it.<\/span>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nTreatment for RSV is yet another hurdle for those over 65. RSV care in general is supportive, Dr. Villanueva explained, and people of all ages will receive hydration, rest, and breathing assistance if they're hospitalized for RSV.\n<\/p>\n \nYoung infants who are at risk of developing severe RSV can be given a monoclonal antibody treatment called Synagis (palivizumab) to prevent serious symptoms, but no such medication exists for older children or adults. \n<\/p>\n What Are the Symptoms of RSV in Babies? What to Know About This Contagious Virus<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nThough researchers are making progress on a vaccine for RSV\u2014and it could be available \u201cwithin the next two years,\u201d Dr. Sellick said\u2014we\u2019re not there yet. And in the face of high case numbers, prevention is the only tool available to stop RSV from increasing to even more dangerous levels.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe good news is the pandemic has taught us all the tools we need to keep ourselves safe,\u201d said Dr. Grein. \u201cAll of those measures like wearing masks, staying away from others who are ill\u2014those things work very well for pretty much all respiratory viruses, including RSV.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThis doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the US needs to go back to full-scale preventative measures like we saw in 2020 and 2021. Instead, Dr. Villanueva said, it\u2019s best to \u201cevaluate your own risk,\u201d and decide if masking up or other preventative tools are a good idea to implement.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nIt\u2019s impossible to predict if this current RSV surge is an early peak, or if it\u2019s a precursor to even more hospitalizations to come in the following weeks or months, experts said. But prevention is one sure way to keep seniors safe from RSV.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cOur main strategy is really to prevent people from getting it in the first place,\u201d Dr. Villanueva said. \u201cWe know that it works, right\u2014masking and hand hygiene works because RSV is basically transmitted the same way as COVID is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" monkeybusinessimages \/ Getty Images RSV, typically thought of as a pediatric disease, is sending adults over 65 to the hospital in higher numbers than normal, according to new CDC data. Experts say that a lack of COVID precautions, and multi-generational gatherings, could be to blame for the increase in cases and hospitalizations. There\u2019s currently no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,661],"tags":[116,662],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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An Earlier, More Severe RSV Season\u00a0 <\/span> <\/h2>\n
Some Populations Are More Vulnerable to Severe Disease <\/span> <\/h2>\n
Without a Vaccine, Prevention is Key <\/span> <\/h2>\n