COLORADO, USA — 'Tis the season!
Fresh off the holidays, and now in the heart of winter, respiratory viruses are making their seasonal rounds through Colorado. And much like a lingering guest, the crud is sticking around longer than anyone wants.
“We’re seeing a lot of flu,” said Dr. Michelle Barron, Senior Director of Infection Prevention at UCHealth. “So certainly, if you’re down for the count, and you’re feeling it, it might be the flu.”
She said COVID, RSV, and the common cold are also circulating.
“It’s just good old-fashioned cold virus season," she said.
“For the last three years, what have we talked about? COVID, COVID, COVID. If you look back before COVID, it's flu, flu, flu. RSV, whatever crud we talk about at the time, right? In the pandemic we just didn’t see a lot of these other viruses,” Barron said. “This year people are like, ‘Is it really that bad? Is flu worse than usual?’ I’m like, no, flu is flu. It's always bad.”
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports for the week ending Jan. 6, 278 people were hospitalized with flu. CDPHE said that represents 16% of all flu hospitalizations since the start of the season on Oct. 1. Most hospitalized patients are adults.
While flu hospitalizations dropped off during the pandemic, these numbers are more aligned with recent historical trends.
CDPHE said 270 people were hospitalized with RSV during the week ending Jan. 6. Most RSV hospitalizations this season (77%) have been among children, which is normal.
Through a spokesperson, Children's Hospital Colorado Associate Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Carney said that hospital expects they are still in the midst of the pediatric viral respiratory season. Children’s believes the peak of the season is past, but expects several more weeks of increased patient volume ahead. They haven't seen significant post-holiday increases in patients.
CDPHE said 246 people are currently hospitalized with COVID. That’s a dramatic difference from the early January hospitalization numbers during the height of the pandemic.
“Looking at hospitalizations is sort of the surrogate of severity, “ Barron said. “It's so much lower than before. It actually is still very manageable, which is a good thing.”
That doesn’t mean people aren’t getting sick. It just means more of them are able to ride out their illness at home, rather than requiring hospital treatment.
“If you compare numbers year to year, I’ll take this. Truth be told, I’d love there to be none. People say, ‘Wouldn’t you be bored?' Let me be bored!” she said.
“If people can stay healthy, that would be amazing," she said.
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