RSV is on the rise in Canada. Here’s what you need to know about the virus. (Photo via Getty Images)
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Respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV, is on the rise in Canada.
And while the virus is typically known to affect children, adults can also become infected.
Recently, several U.S. hospitals have reported being “overwhelmed” by a surge of children’s RSV cases. Now, Canadian emergency rooms are starting to see an increase in the contagious virus. But how does that affect adults?
In an interview with Yahoo Canada, Laurie Schwartz, an independent respiratory researcher at Healthcare Alliance, says that the current rise in RSV cases is “troubling.”
Can adults get RSV?
“It’s so contagious, and we usually see it in children because they’re in public spaces like schools where it’s really easy to spread the virus,” explains Schwartz.
“…However, adults can just as easily be carriers of the virus and spread it to their children or someone else’s children, and so a downward spiral ensues,” she adds. “Many adults may have the virus without knowing it because it hits adults milder, and thus we brush it off as no big deal. But to children, it’s more serious.”
Despite being known as a children’s virus, RSV can also affect adults too. (Photo via Getty Images)
RSV in Canada: The need-to-know
The Public Health Agency of Canada has noted a high number of cases in much of the country (particularly in Quebec) during a time when many Canadian hospitals are already struggling with long wait times and capacity issues.
The agency’s most recent Respiratory Virus Report stated that RSV activity “is above expected levels for this time of year.” The cases are only predicted to grow as the country enters its first cold and flu season without COVID-19 measures and restrictions.
Read on to learn more about RSV, its symptoms, and how you might be able to prevent the virus.
RSV activity “is above expected levels for this time of year,” according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. (Photo via Getty Images)
Although RSV can affect anyone of any age, it’s most common in infants and children. In fact, it’s so common that by the age of two, most infants and children have been infected with some form of RSV.
RSV can be life-threatening, especially for infants and older adults with a history of congestive heart failure, asthma or other breathing issues.
However, it’s usually a mild condition that goes away on its own. If the virus persists, it can lead to more serious health issues like pneumonia or bronchitis — the inflammation of small airways in the lungs.
“In my career I have seen loads of children with RSV, and for the most part it’s fairly manageable. However, that doesn’t mean we should relax about it. If a child has never really been sick before, you just never know how they may react to the RSV virus,” says Schwartz.
RSV outbreaks tend to begin in the late fall and run until the early spring. However, cases tend to peak during the winter months.
“With cold and flu season on the way, and with less and less people wearing masks, I can absolutely see how RSV cases are surging,” adds Schwartz. “…And that goes for adults too, wear your masks, wash your hands, because you might also be a carrier of the virus.”
Runny nose and sneezing are common symptoms of RSV. (Photo via Getty Images)
What are the symptoms of RSV?
As per the Canadian Lung Association, the RSV virus mostly causes mild cold-like symptoms including runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, coughing and fever.
Additionally, there are warning signs that may mean a patient has a more serious case of RSV. If you or someone you know exhibits any of the following symptoms, seek medical attention right away:
Blue lips or fingernails
Wheezing
Rapid breathing or having troubles breathing
Deeper or more frequent coughing
Dehydration
In infants, difficulty breastfeeding or bottle feeding
“If the case is mild, symptoms usually last one to two weeks. But if coughing is involved, it can take longer to curb the virus,” Schwartz explains. “As the symptoms are so similar to the common cold, it can be hard to differentiate RSV from other conditions.”
One of the only ways to treat RSV is through at-home supportive care, such as rest and hydration. (Photo via Getty Images)
How is RSV treated?
“In most cases, RSV will go away on its own without any special medical treatment,” says Schwartz.
Additionally, RSV is not treated with antibiotics because they do not work against viruses. However, if you or your child develops pneumonia or bronchitis, they may need to be treated by a healthcare professional, given oxygen, or take other medicine to open up the airway.
One of the only ways to treat RSV is through at-home supportive care, such as rest and hydration.
How can I prevent RSV?
As RSV tends to occur in various outbreaks during the fall and winter months, it can be difficult to prevent someone from getting the virus — especially children.
Children’s settings such as day-care centres and preschools are higher-risk locations, and because the virus can stay on surfaces for hours, it is easily passed from person to person.
That said, there are ways to reduce someone’s risk of getting RSV.
Make sure you frequently wash their hands with soap and water
Do not go out if you feel sick, or avoid people who are sick
Do not share items that could easily pass germs, like cups, cutlery or clothing
Immediately throw used tissues in the garbage
Wear a mask
“There are very basic things that we can do to help prevent RSV, like washing our hands and staying home when feeling unwell, but not everyone puts them into practice,” Schwartz says. “This year, more than ever, please take precautionary measures for you and other people’s health.”
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.
There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.
The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.
Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.
Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. Thursday, it released state figures, showing that about 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin got the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. It is treated with antibiotics. Whooping cough used to be very common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations. It is in a shot along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The combo shot is recommended for adults every 10 years.
“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.
But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings, an official said. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens, said Justin Frederick, deputy director of the health department.
That includes his own teenage daughter.
“It’s a horrible disease. She still wakes up — after being treated with her antibiotics — in a panic because she’s coughing so much she can’t breathe,” he said.
It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.
“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”
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AP data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
How a sperm and egg fuse together has long been a mystery.
New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.
“We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.
The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell.
Scientists had previously known about two proteins, one on the surface of the sperm and another on the egg’s membrane. Working with international collaborators, Pauli’s lab used Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold — whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month — to help them identify a new protein that allows the first molecular connection between sperm and egg. They also demonstrated how it functions in living things.
It wasn’t previously known how the proteins “worked together as a team in order to allow sperm and egg to recognize each other,” Pauli said.
Scientists still don’t know how the sperm actually gets inside the egg after it attaches and hope to delve into that next.
Eventually, Pauli said, such work could help other scientists understand infertility better or develop new birth control methods.
The work provides targets for the development of male contraceptives in particular, said David Greenstein, a genetics and cell biology expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study.
The latest study “also underscores the importance of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry,” he said in an email.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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