CNN
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The season of respiratory viruses began early in children this year and Flooded children's hospitals In many parts of the country – especially with a respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV.
But adults can also get RSV. Although RSV usually does not send so much Adults in the hospitalThis can be a serious and even deadly disease for the elderly and people with the main health conditions.
And with a large number of children receiving RSV, the chances that adults will also be exhibited. Some doctors say that they begin to see growth in adult patients.
This season, about 6 out of every 100,000 elderly people were hospitalized with RSV, according to data US centers for the control and prevention of diseases. This is significantly lower than in children, but still uncharacterly high. Years before Pandemic Covid-19 pandemic, hospitalization indicators for the elderly were about 10 times lower at the moment of the season.
Dr. Ann Fozhli, professor of infectious diseases at the Medical Center of the University of Rochester, who Published a study On RSV in adults, RSV has grown somewhat in children in the summer and the beginning of autumn last year, but the United States at that time did not see the usual proportional increase in RSV in the elderly.
“I think older people were more careful to continue public health care, such as masks and social distances last year, because they were still worried about Covid,” Felli said. “But this year we begin to see the elderly in a hospital in a hospital with RSV, because everyone is caught in caution.”
Too often, RSV flies under the radar in adults, she said. Many people, even doctors, lose sight of his influence on adults.
“They consider this a strictly pediatric disease, but you know, if you do not check this, you will never know what someone is actually sick,” Feli said.
In the United States, track viruses, such as RSV Not so carefully As for the Covid-19, so it is difficult to understand exactly how many adults RSV are ill. The number of cases of RSV comes from the reports on independence, which are sent to several dozen laboratories that represent only a tenth of the population, and then the reports exchange CDC.
According to Falti, in accordance with the best grades in the United States in the United States in the United States from RSV, from 10,000 to 15,000 adults.
2015 study Older people in industrialized countries said that the burden of RSV is “essential” and estimated that about 14.5% of 1.5 million adults caught in RSV were admitted to hospitals. People who were 65 years old, and older, were more likely to be hospitalized than those age from 50 to 64 years.
“When we compare it with influenza A, this is not too far behind,” Fly said, referring to one of the strains of seasonal flu, which is often associated with a more serious disease.
RSV Appears in adults In the same way as in children. This may look like a cold and turn on a runny nose, a decrease in appetite, coughing, sneezing, fever and wheezing. Symptoms usually last a week or two, and they clarify with the help of rest and liquid.
But in some adults, RSV can become dangerous because it can lead to dehydration, breathing problems and more serious diseases, such as pneumonia and bronchiolite, inflammation of tiny respiratory tract in the lungs.
Adults who are most seriously at risk of severe results with RSV are 65 years and older. Virus It can spread quickly Through the nursing home or a long-term care institution, like Covid-19 and influenza.
Adults with a weakened immune system should be careful in the RSV season. This may include people undergoing cancer treatment, patients with transplantation, people with HIV and those who take certain drugs who suppress the immune system for diseases such as the crown, lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.
Adults with a chronic heart or lung diseases, such as asthma, COPD or heart failure, will also be more likely to go to the hospital if they catch RSV.
An infected person can pass RSV through a cough or sneezing. If respiratory drops land on the surface, like a door handle or table, and someone else touches it, and then applies to their face, they can get sick.
It also spreads because healthy adults often do not find out that they have this. Usually this does not cause fatigue, like a flu or Covid, so many adults will go to work or jump on a plane or bus, raising their symptoms to allergies. When they interact with others, this spreads on.
RSV can easily spread from children to adults.
If you coughing or you have other RSV symptoms, and you are in a high-risk category, you should consult a doctor and check it, says Dr. Daphne Dominic Villanauva.
“We cannot check everyone right now – in the ideal world we would like to do this – but we want to focus on vulnerable people,” said Villanaeva, Associate Professor At a medical school at the University of West Virginia, which wrote research on RSV.
In the offices of doctors there are SWAB tests that can determine whether the disease of influenza, RSV or Covid is.
There are specific antiviral drugs for influenza and Covid-19, but not for RSV. The trick is that it is checked early, even to exclude RSV; The start of work on the process or antivirus plan of the influenza can immediately reduce the time when you are sick and prevent the progression of the virus to something more serious.
With RSV, treatment is what is called supporting care: drink a lot of liquids. Get a real rest. Stay at home so as not to spread it. Wear the mask around others in your home.
If you begin to breathe and experience displeased breathing, according to Fozhli, these will be clear signals that you should consult a doctor or, possibly, even quickly go to the emergency department. In the hospital, they can give you additional oxygen, if necessary.
There is no protection against the RSV vaccine, but it can Change for the next season. In the United States there are four RSV vaccines that may come closer to FDA, and more than a dozen tests are tested. Some of them are designed to protect children, and some are tested in the elderly.
“Since we have very limited ways of effective treatment of this, you must do everything possible to prevent it first of all,” said Villanaeva.
Protective measures for this lively season RSV will sound familiar: often wash your hands, disinfect the surfaces and wear a mask in crowded spaces.
“Perhaps you will want to postpone this visit for a week to see your grandchildren, or you can put on a mask if you go to a crowded place,” Feli said. “Masks and work on washing hands. I know that people like this may be, but if you are a fragile person or you know that you have underlieings of the disease when we know that RSV is growing, you must do these things and use caution around children who are actively ill. Everything helps. ”
