Temperatures are dropping and the risk of COVID-19 and influenza are up. And for the last few months, patients with a different malady — respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV — have been overwhelming hospitals. Public health officials warn that come winter there could be a “tripledemic.”
The unusually high number of RSV infections so early in the year are already pushing hospitals to capacity. In normal years, RSV sends thousands of children to the hospital over fall and winter, but for the second year in a row experts have seen an unprecedented spike in the number of cases beginning during the summer months.
While RSV mostly manifests as a mild illness with cold-like symptoms in adults, it can cause pneumonia and bronchiolitis in very young children. It can be life-threatening in infants and older adults.
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