It may be spring, but virus season isn\u2019t over yet. <\/p>\n
Flu and Covid, including a new variant called BA.3.2, nicknamed \u201ccicada,\u201d are still circulating, along with several other respiratory illnesses and a nasty stomach bug that are leaving many Americans feeling cruddy. <\/p>\n
The symptoms for most of the viruses are so similar \u2014 sniffles, cough, muscle aches, fever \u2014 that doctors say you really can\u2019t tell what you\u2019ve got without a test. <\/p>\n
Influenza A was really bad in the U.S. at the end of last year, driven by the H3N2 subclade K variant. As it began to peak in January, \u201cwe transitioned into seeing more of these other viruses,\u201d said Marlene Wolfe, an assistant professor of environmental health at Emory University. \u201cEvery year we think of fall, winter and spring as this respiratory illness season,\u201d she added, \u201cbut the reality is that there are different viruses that pop up throughout that season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arkansas, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming are still experiencing moderate amounts of respiratory illnesses, while infections are low elsewhere in the country, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data<\/a>. <\/p>\n Cases of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, remain high in some states, including Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and Vermont.<\/p>\n Which illness do I have?<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, there is not really a distinct trait between these respiratory illnesses,\u201d Dr. Greeta Sood, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, said.<\/p>\n Covid symptoms are no longer hallmarked by the loss of taste and smell as they were in the first couple years of the pandemic, she said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe also can\u2019t really predict, like before, what someone has based on what is circulating. It could be Covid, it could be influenza, and now we have added the prolonged RSV to the mix,\u201d Sood said. <\/p>\n Right now, local wastewater data, which measures how prevalent different viruses are in a community, may be able to hint at which virus you may have. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s relatively quiet for these diseases compared to other years, but where you live may put one or another as more likely,\u201d said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health. <\/p>\n Wolfe agreed it\u2019s important to understand which viruses are circulating in your community, since this can vary widely from one state to the next. <\/p>\n \u201cThe dynamics of when and where we see more cases differs from virus to virus, so it\u2019s important to know what is happening in your community. We do still have a number of respiratory viruses right now that commonly circulate at the beginning of spring,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Do I have Covid? <\/p>\n Masks are mostly gone. Relatively few people got the new Covid shots<\/a> this winter, partly because of confusion over who was eligible to get them. <\/p>\n The CDC has reported<\/a> that the heavily mutated Covid variant called BA.3.2 has been detected in wastewater and nasal swabs in 25 states. The variant\u2019s spike proteins carry mutations that experts worry could allow it to evade immunity from prior infections or booster shots. <\/p>\n \u201cThis variant is very immunologically distinct compared to previous variants, and whenever that happens, there always is a risk that due to the fact that we have less immunity to this organism, so it could cause a spike in cases,\u201d said Sood.<\/p>\n Only about 0.55% of Covid viruses sampled in the U.S. as of mid-March were the BA.3.2 variant, the most recent CDC data shows<\/a>. Covid cases did not spike in Europe following the first detected case of BA.3.2 last April, the agency reported<\/a>. Right now, CDC data shows<\/a> that Covid cases, although at low levels, are rising in Florida and Massachusetts, while declining across the rest of the country. <\/p>\n In the U.S., \u201cCovid cases overall don\u2019t look like they are increasing dramatically,\u201d Sood said, adding that it\u2019s too soon to tell whether BA.3.2 will cause Covid cases to spike. \u201cThere have been a number of variants that similarly have been very immunologically distinct, and we haven\u2019t seen a wave.\u201d<\/p>\n CDC data<\/a> shows Covid cases are mixed across the country. Their numbers are high or moderate in parts of the South, Midwest, D.C. area and Appalachia, and low in the West and Southeast. Data from WastewaterSCAN<\/a>, a public health initiative that collects wastewater surveillance data, is showing an uptick in Covid cases. <\/p>\n \u201cCovid still hasn\u2019t fallen into a predictable pattern,\u201d said Nuzzo, adding that a slight increase in Covid cases in certain states \u201care not something to be alarmed about. We don\u2019t see any concerning trends for Covid right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, people who are at high risk for complications<\/a> should consider getting a booster every six months or so, she said. <\/p>\n \u201cI have timed Covid boosters with either travel, when I really don\u2019t want to get Covid, or when my local numbers are climbing. People need to look at different factors in their lives, based on local trends and other circumstances,\u201d Nuzzo said.<\/p>\n Influenza<\/p>\n An early surge of flu cases<\/a> this season was driven by a mutated influenza A, or H3N2, strain called \u201csubclade K.\u201d Cases spiked between Thanksgiving and early January, and some experts feared the U.S. would repeat last year\u2019s deadly flu season<\/a>, which killed nearly 800 kids and teens. <\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t shake up to be as bad as last year\u2019s flu season, which isn\u2019t saying much, since last year\u2019s was the worst on record,\u201d Nuzzo said. \u201cLast year, more children died of flu than any other year including 2009, when we had a flu pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n The CDC has recorded<\/a> 115 pediatric influenza deaths so far during this flu season, after two consistent record-breaking years. The 2023-24 flu season<\/a> killed 199 kids and teenagers, tying the previous record during 2019-20 flu season. However, the infections are still proving deadly \u2014 a teenager in California<\/a> died in early March from the flu, one of 14 pediatric deaths<\/a> that week. <\/p>\n Influenza A cases began dropping in January<\/a> and continue to drop across the country, though the strain is still causing infections and accounts for the lion\u2019s share of infections. Influenza B cases are rising in Washington and North Dakota, but falling nationwide, according to CDC data<\/a>. WastewaterSCAN data showed the opposite \u2014 that influenza B cases<\/a> are still high across the country and are rising.<\/p>\n \u201cInfluenza B is absolutely still showing up in wastewater quite regularly,\u201d said Wolfe, who is also the program director of WastewaterSCAN.<\/p>\n Sood said there is still time to get the flu vaccine, especially for people who got their last one in early fall. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to be traveling and want to get a vaccine, it\u2019s not too late, but we are closer to the end of the season than the beginning of the season,\u201d Sood said. <\/p>\n Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)<\/p>\n Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, can cause a nasty cough along with a runny nose and fever. While it can be difficult to tell apart from the common cold, RSV can be dangerous<\/a> for kids and babies. <\/p>\n For this season, \u201cRSV has plateaued, but we are still seeing quite a bit of it in wastewater,\u201d Wolfe said. <\/p>\n CDC wastewater data<\/a> shows that, overall, RSV is circulating at moderate levels across the country, but the virus is still high or very high in Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Wyoming. Cases are still rising<\/a> in North Dakota.<\/p>\n \u201cRSV normally comes early in the season, which it did, but what is abnormal about RSV right now is that it\u2019s not going down as much as we would expect,\u201d Sood said. \u201cSome states are still recommending babies born right now should still receive antibodies for RSV, normally RSV season would be considered finished by around now.\u201d<\/p>\n Human metapneumovirus (HMPV)<\/p>\n Human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, is a virus related to RSV that causes similar symptoms to the common cold. According to WastewaterSCAN, HMPV is circulating at high levels across the country \u2014 though this is to be expected, Wolfe said.<\/p>\n \u201cHMPV is quite consistent in wastewater data, and it tends to peak in mid-April,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Norovirus, the \u2018two-bucket disease\u2019<\/p>\n Of the viruses spreading widely right now, you will know if what you\u2019ve got is norovirus. Although it\u2019s sometimes called the stomach flu, it\u2019s a gastrointestinal virus, not a respiratory one. The nasty, extremely contagious bug has been at high levels for months and is still causing misery. In a recent outbreak, more than 150 people, including passengers and crew, on board a Princess cruise fell ill with norovirus<\/a>, according to the CDC. <\/p>\n People with norovirus suddenly come down with vomiting, diarrhea and nausea, which typically lasts for a couple of days, earning it the name \u201ctwo-bucket disease<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n WastewaterSCAN shows<\/a> norovirus loads are still high across the country but are not increasing. Last cold and flu season, the U.S. experienced abnormally high cases of norovirus, Wolfe said. So far, the CDC has recorded less than half<\/a> the number of norovirus cases this season compared to last.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year what we are seeing looks very much like the pattern we saw before that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe saw norovirus peaking around the end of February and cases appear to be plateauing. It\u2019s good to see it\u2019s not as bad as it was last year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may be spring, but virus season isn\u2019t over yet. 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