Travel & Lifestyle: The Most Common Winter Viruses Doctors Are Seeing Right Now

It’s the time of year when it’s hard to go anywhere without coming into contact with someone who is sneezing or coughing.

Right now, a number of viruses are causing a host of upper respiratory symptoms, including congestion, coughs, fever, body aches, headaches and runny noses. However, these are the illnesses that doctors are seeing and treating the most:

“Without question, over the last several weeks, the thing circulating has been the flu,” said Dr. Richard A. Martinello, the chief medical officer and infectious diseases physician at Yale Medicine.

Flu rates have gone up “substantially,” he said.

Dr. Krupa Playforth, a pediatrician, founder of The Pediatrician Mom and author of “Eyes, Knees, Boundaries, Please!” added, “right now, I’m seeing a very large percentage of children with Influenza A,” referring to the specific strain of the flu that is most prevalent right now.

Influenza hasn’t peaked yet in the U.S., said Dr. Mark Loafman, a family physician in Chicago. “And as of a couple of days ago, the most recent reporting, both in our state and region and across the country, is that all of the trends are still up for influenza,” Loafman noted. “More and more cases each day are happening with more hospitalizations, more serious illness, and unfortunately, more deaths from influenza.”

COVID-19 is at moderate levels throughout the country, according to Loafman. The virus is below flu rates, but certainly still infecting people.

“We’re still seeing a fair amount of COVID, kind of that background level with a little bit of a winter uptick as well,” Loafman added.

Playforth added that COVID rates in kids at her practice are increasing, but are low overall.

“This has been a surprisingly light season for respiratory syncytial virus. And one possibility is that … we’re on our third year now with an effective vaccination against RSV,” said Martinello. “Especially in kids, there’s some thought that getting that vaccine out there has really made a dent in how this winter virus impacts the population.”

This doesn’t mean the virus isn’t circulating at all, though. According to Playforth, there are “increasing numbers of RSV” among her patients.

CDC data shows that RSV isn’t infecting people at anywhere near the same rate as flu. Instead, RSV rates are currently low across the country, but hospitalizations are on the rise.

There are also higher levels of the viruses that cause the common cold, said Martinello, “but not to the degree that we’ve seen increases with flu.”

This includes rhinovirus, Loafman said, which is the virus that most often causes colds.

“Cold symptoms generally don’t bring people to the hospital. So it’s not surprising that a fairly high rate of influenza positive is showing up on our testing,” Loafman said.

People tend to go get tested for the flu (or COVID) if they’re having more severe symptoms, while “people with just a common cold are tending to tough that out at home on their own,” Loafman explained.

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“I wish so much that there was a magic solution to help prevent all these illnesses,” Playforth said.

There isn’t any one way to stay healthy all winter long, but there are things you can do to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from these viruses. First, it’s not too late for the flu shot. While the flu vaccine may not be a perfect match to the dominant flu strain this winter, it remains a valuable way to protect yourself.

“It is still one of the best things that you could do to minimize both your risk for getting flu and minimize your risk that if you do get flu, that it won’t be so severe that you need to go to the emergency department or that you need you’re sick enough to be hospitalized,” Martinello said.

The same goes for immunization against other circulating illnesses this winter — COVID-19 and RSV.

“For RSV: the monoclonal antibody shot … is tremendously protective,” said Playforth. “Babies who are under 8 months (and whose mothers were not given the RSV vaccine during pregnancy) are eligible for this — and it works within hours of getting the injection.”

“Vaccines work. They’re safe and effective. And the more uptake we have of vaccination, the less cases we have, the less hospitalizations, the less deaths,” Loafman said.

“Beyond these, the best way to protect against viral infections is the boring stuff we talk about all the time,” Playforth said. “Minimizing the time spent around sick people, especially in close quarters … along with hand-washing and masking will all make a difference.”

It’s also helpful to wipe down high-touch surfaces, she said.

If you are sick, you should stay home, according to Loafman. “Don’t try to be a hero and go in and take your cold or flu to work, because you’re just going to hurt people,” Loafman said.

“And of course, [do] your best to get enough high-quality sleep and a range of nutrients from your diet,” Playforth said.