COVID, flu, colds and RSV: Can more than one hit you at once? : Shots

With COVID, flu and chilly viruses spreading extensively this winter, researchers have been investigating whether or not you could possibly be contaminated with greater than one after the other.

Nathan Howard/AP

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Nathan Howard/AP

With COVID, flu and chilly viruses spreading extensively this winter, researchers have been investigating whether or not you could possibly be contaminated with greater than one after the other.

Nathan Howard/AP

In the event you’re like most People, somebody in your loved ones or social circle is at the moment sick with COVID, the flu, a chilly, or RSV. With the waves of sickness hitting many properties, some individuals are questioning: may I’ve caught a couple of of those germs on the similar time?

The reply is: Sure, it might occur. There may be loads of proof of individuals testing optimistic for, say, COVID and influenza or influenza and RSV concurrently.

“Completely, you may catch a couple of virus on the similar time,” says Dr. Tina Tan, a pediatric infectious illness specialist at Northwestern College.

“We have had children who really had three totally different viruses. A few of them are available with RSV. They’ve additionally had influenza and enterovirus. There have been different children who’ve offered with COVID and influenza.”

The chance of a number of infections is especially excessive this yr as many viruses have flocked collectively.

“It is form of an ideal storm for co-infections,” Tan says.

It is unclear how typically this occurs, as most testing for this type of factor is completed on hospitalized sufferers, which seemingly aren’t consultant of most of the people. However some research have discovered co-infections in as much as 20% of those sufferers.

The chance, nevertheless, doesn’t appear to be the identical for everybody. Based on the researchers, youngsters appear to be more likely to catch a couple of insect above the opposite, particularly very younger youngsters.

“About 20% of infants below six months of age hospitalized with influenza had RSV co-infection,” says Dr. Shikha Garg, a medical epidemiologist on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. This quantity drops to round 13% for youngsters aged six months to 2 years and fewer than 5% for youngsters aged 5 and over.

Why youngsters are extra susceptible to co-infections is unclear, however there are theories.

“It may simply be as a result of they’re consistently uncovered to respiratory infections,” says Amanda Jamieson, who research viruses at Brown College. “However it may be that their immune system simply hasn’t developed the immunity of outdated individuals.”

That mentioned, co-infections can happen at any age, particularly within the aged and folks with weakened immune techniques.

On the similar time, there may be rising proof that co-infections will be extra severe than simply getting sick with one virus at a time. In actual fact, a brand new CDC examine launched Wednesday finds that it’s.

The examine, printed within the journal Pediatrics, involving greater than 4,000 hospitalized youngsters, those that had COVID plus one other virus, similar to a chilly virus, had been more likely to wish oxygen to assist them breathe and to require intensive care.

“We discovered that youngsters below 5 had been about twice as prone to have extreme illness once they had a [<co-infection] in comparison with once they had been simply contaminated with SARS-CoV2,” says CDC pediatrician and doctor Dr. Nickolas Agathis who carried out the examine. “Youngsters below two who’ve RSV had been twice as prone to have extreme illness as youngsters who simply had COVID and never RSV as properly.”

The findings underscore the significance of testing hospitalized sufferers for respiratory infections to make sure they’re getting the appropriate remedy, Agathis says.

It is not solely clear why co-infections could be extra extreme, but it surely might be as a result of a number of infections trigger extra irritation and totally different respiratory viruses injury the lungs in several methods.

“It is nearly like getting a couple of punch, and it might make you even sicker,” says Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious illness specialist at Vanderbilt College.

The most effective factor individuals can do to cut back danger is every little thing individuals have carried out in recent times to guard themselves from an infection in the course of the pandemic: get the COVID and flu vaccine; wash your fingers so much; and put on a masks in crowded, poorly ventilated areas and round sick individuals.

“Getting immunized with flu and SARS-CoV2 vaccines and protecting updated with it’s key to defending youngsters in addition to neighborhood and relations,” says Dr. Fiona Havers, medical epidemiologist on the CDC. “Staying residence when you find yourself sick is important.”