Triple Endemic

Covid, RSV, Flu- Triple Endemic- Say What?

We have been continuously hearing this new coined phrase on the news “Triple Endemic”, but what does it mean? An Endemic means a disease that is regularly occurring in an area or region., versus Pandemic which means a disease prevalent over a world. Every winter we face a slew of respiratory viruses. These viruses are not necessarily new, but what has changed is the pattern of the viruses and our healthcare system. See Flu and RSV have typically been around every winter. RSV stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus, which tends to affect children and elderly the worst. We see large case loads of sick people outpatient and at the hospital every year due to these viruses which can be severe or even life threatening in some. While these viruses are around all year around cases tend to peak between December and February. During these times hospitals are typically very busy and many reach capacity. This pattern is how its usually been up until 2020. In 2020, Covid-19 came into play. We modified behaviors and many locations were on “lock down”. In the winter of 2020, I barely saw any Flu or RSV cases. Behaviors such as social distancing, hand washing, and mask wearing significantly reduced the spread of Influenza and RSV as well as Covid-19 and we didn’t see the spike in cases we typically do. As behaviors modified and we started to have more social interaction, wore masks less, and were less concerned about hand washing, our usual respiratory viruses, along with Covid-19 began to circulate more freely.

Many of us haven’t been exposed to RSV or Flu for the past 2 years and therefore our immunity may also be low or lacking towards these viruses. This is especially true for small children born or still very young in 2020, who maybe just now getting exposed to these viruses for the very first time. We are now in 2022, the Covid fatigue has really set in at this point, people are alot more social and interacting more, very few are masking, and I’ve even heard people complaining about not wanting to wash their hands. Our usual Winter Viruses began to circulate in the United States earlier than usual. We started to see very high numbers of Flu and RSV starting back in October.

Unfortunately, our healthcare system and healthcare workers have taken a massive hit in the past 3 years. The healthcare system is severely understaffed, overworked and burned out from the previous 3 years of fighting Covid-19. We now have a surge of three different fast spreading respiratory viruses that can be potentially severe or life threatening in some. Hospitals are being overwhelmed due to high volume of patients, while being understaffed and having supply chain issues.

At this point you should be asking yourself, what can I do? We can take steps to help prevent the spread of these viruses and take certain measures to help prevent us from having to go to the hospital.

• Vaccinate- Please get your flu vaccine yearly. Get your Covid Vaccine. If already vaccinated for Covid get your fall booster or Bivalent booster which includes Omicron strain.

• Wear a mask-

  • Especially in crowded areas and especially if you are at high risk of complications from Covid, Flu, or RSV.

  • Ideally if you are sick stay home. If you must venture out wear a mask!

• Wash your hands or sanitize often

• Keep your Immune system healthy by living a healthy lifestyle

• Stay home if you’re sick

• Call your doctor if you are experiencing symptoms of Covid, Flu, or RSV.

  • With Covid and flu you maybe able to start antiviral prescriptions to help decrease the duration, and intensity of the virus. It can also decrease the rate of spread of the virus to others. But, these have to be started within the first few days (48 hours of symptoms for flu, and 5 days for Covid).

You can read more about the symptoms and similarities to Covid and Flu here.

You can read more about RSV here.

Our members at Velez Family Health can always contact me directly via phone, text or email. I strive to take care of any sick patients the same day if possible. Our goal is to keep you out of the urgent cares and emergency rooms if possible and get you feeling better as quickly as possible.