RSV Appears Like It’s In every single place. What Is It?

Hello of us, it’s Kristen in dreary New York. A reader wonders about RSV, which out of the blue looks as if it’s in every single place. However earlier than we get to that…

What’s RSV and the way is it totally different from the flu? Do I want a vaccine? — Julie, Florida

The opposite night time, whereas my boyfriend and I have been watching our new favourite TV present (Yellowstone), an advert got here on for GSK’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, Arexvy. He requested me why he’d by no means even heard of RSV till just lately. It certain does look like it’s in every single place nowadays.

RSV is a extremely contagious lung an infection that peaks within the winter months, very similar to Covid and the flu.

“They happen on the similar time of the 12 months and share some signs, so it is vitally troublesome for folks to inform which respiratory virus they’ve with out testing,” says Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at College of Illinois at Chicago.

Each RSV and the flu can vary in severity from gentle to extreme. The 2 viruses additionally share many signs, together with fever, cough and a runny nostril. It’s doable to have each RSV and the flu on the similar time.

“Individuals at highest danger for extreme illness in RSV are infants and the aged, and other people at highest danger for extreme influenza are the aged and pregnant folks,” says Wallace, including that the virus is the primary reason for hospitalization in younger kids.

Just like the flu and Covid, RSV is transmitted person-to-person by way of respiratory droplets. However it may be extra simply transmitted than the flu — even by touching objects like doorknobs which have virus particles on them.

Whereas RSV has been getting quite a lot of publicity recently, it’s truly a really previous and quite common illness. Nearly all kids may have had RSV by their second birthday. It’s partly attracted a lot consideration recently as a result of instances surged once we began gathering once more after pandemic-related lockdowns.