Indianapolis, Indiana – As the winter season approaches and the holiday season is upon us, so does the increased risk of infection with COVID, which is still circulating, influenza, or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as more and more people are gathering indoors.
Help experts around the country have been keeping a close eye out for signs of illness in patients and are already reporting a significant increase in infections from the aforementioned viruses, with Indianapolis also not far behind. The primary care physician at IU Health, Dr. Ethan Blocher-Smith, said there has been an increase recently in the number of people infected with the COVID-19, RSV, and influenza viruses.
While most people have been concerned about COVID-19, it seems that the flu is what is worrying health experts more since there was an unexpected early surge this season. This fact dismayed Dr. Blocher-Smith, too. According to him, there are considerable trends above what was anticipated for this early in the season.
On top of this, the respiratory syncytial virus and the two new variants of COVID-19 are putting additional strains on already overburdened hospitals.
According to dr. Blocher-Smith, “There’s a lot of children’s hospitals whose ICUs are already full with kids in severe respiratory distress from RSV, and it looks like it’s going to be a bad RSV year as well.”
So the several things we should do in order to protect ourselves are the already well-known measures that health experts are reminding us of constantly, such as receiving the flu shot, the COVID-19 booster shot, washing your hands frequently, disinfecting commonly touched surfaces, and wearing a mask while indoors.
“Bear with us. It’s going to be a rough winter,” Blocher-Smith said.
