Beware of RSV, yeah you know me, warns the CDC.
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued health advisory about about a familiar foe: RSV, which is short for the respiratory syncytial virus. This virus seems to be now spreading throughout various parts of the Southern U.S. The CDC is calling this increased “interseasonal” RSV activity, because June ain’t usually RSV season. Instead, RSV activity typically tends to pick up during the Fall and Winter months and then fall in the Spring, similar to what cold and flu viruses do.
Ah, but something was different about this past Fall and Winter compared to previous Falls and Winters. Hmm, what could it be? Was it the return of McDreamy to the TV show Grey’s Anatomy?Was it the appearance of Harry Styles on the cover of Vogue? Was it the spread of the “Elf on the Shelf” meme on Instagram? Well, those probably would not have prevented the spread of RSV.
No, the answer rhymes with the Plovid-19 mandemic. The precautions that people have been taking during the Covid-19 pandemic such as wearing face masks and staying six feet or one Denzel (because Denzel Washington is about six feet tall) apart from one another may have been keeping other respiratory viruses such as RSV at bay since the start of the pandemic. Indeed, data from the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) suggests that RSV activity in the U.S.plummeted in April 2020 and stayed low until late March 2021. The word “suggests” is used here because NREVSS only includes cases in which a person was tested for RSV and that case was reported to local and state health departments.
However, recently more and more people have been saying, “precautions, schmecautions,” due to being vaccinated against Covid-19, pretending that they are vaccinated against Covid-19, or not caring about Covid-19. As a result, RSV may be saying, “I want to break free” and “here’s our chance to spread,” even though it is technically the off-season for RSV. Indeed, over the past two months or so, NREVSS has shown an increased number of RSV cases, particularly in states that comprise the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Region 4 (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee) and Region 6 (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas).
This isn’t good because RSV is not a happy, fun virus that causes giggles and joy. Quite the contrary. About four to six days after exposure to this RNA virus, you typically will suffer five to seven days of upper respiratory tract infection symptoms such as a fever, headache, runny nose, sore throat, cough, and fatigue. Of course, not everyone infected with RSV may have symptoms.
Worse things can happen though, especially in younger children or older adults, whose immune systems aren’t quite as strong. In fact, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis, which is an inflammation of the airways in the lungs, and pneumonia in children under one year of age in the U.S. Each year, RSV is responsible for an average of 58,000 hospitalizations and 100 to 500 deaths among children younger than 5 years of age and 177,000 hospitalizations with 14,000 deaths among adults 65 years or older.
The symptoms among infants less than six months of age tend to be different too. Irritability, poor feeding, lethargy, or trouble breathing are more common. They may or may not have a fever. They are also less likely to say, “dude, not feeling good. I’m feeling pretty darn salty” or “big yikes!” Since RSV can cause much more severe disease in infants, have a low threshold for contacting your doctor for help. Of course, if your infant is really young, like less than one month of age, and says “big yikes,” you may be dealing with a ventriloquist.
Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot you can do for an RSV infection except for resting, drinking plenty of fluids, taking over-the-counter medications such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen to relieve your fever and pain, and staying on the lookout for more severe symptoms that may require a visit to your doctor or the emergency room. Avoid giving aspirin to a child, because of the risk of Reye’s syndrome, which can result in dangerous swelling of the liver and brain, as opposed to delightful swelling of the liver and brain. And definitely don’t give or inject bleach, even if your child happens to be 74 years old.
RSV commonly spreads via two means. One is larger respiratory droplets that can come out of your mouth when you cough or sneeze. The other is by contaminating surfaces when you cough or sneeze on the surface or touch the surface with your filthy paws. So precautions like washing your hands thoroughly and frequently will help prevent infection. Just make sure that you lather up with soap for at least 20 seconds, which will get you through the first chorus when singing the Divinyls song “I Touch Myself.”
The only way to tell for sure if you have RSV is to be tested for RSV, preferably with a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test. RSV infections don’t have unique symptoms that clearly distinguish them from other respiratory infections like purple spots or the unexplained need to listen to the song “Baby” by Justin Bieber.
So be aware of RSV. That doesn’t mean hoard toilet paper and hide out in your toilet paper roll teepee. There is rarely a reason to hoard toilet paper. Plus, RSV is not a novel virus. It’s not going to cause a pandemic this year. Rather, it is a familiar foe, which your immune system may have seen previously. RSV is like that douche-bag that comes around each year, causing trouble.
This year may be a little different, though, with so few people having been exposed to the virus since early 2020. Basically, the virus can behave like people have been behaving in recent weeks after precautions have been relaxed: in a “release the hounds” manner. It may spread further and more aggressively. The actual numbers of RSV cases in recent weeks have probably been higher, potentially much higher, than reported numbers because many people don’t usually get tested for RSV when sick. Therefore, consider getting an RSV test if you have respiratory symptoms but a negative Covid-19 test. And as is the case with any respiratory illness, don’t go to work or school if you are sick. People will not be down with RSV.