Three viruses—influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and COVID-19—have swept through the United States during the past several winters, causing severe illness in vulnerable people and overwhelming hospitals with pediatric and adult patients, reports Yale Medicine.
Tripledemic
This year, for the first time, there are better tools to prevent these diseases, including an updated COVID vaccine, as well as vaccines and a monoclonal antibody injection for those most vulnerable to RSV. How much they will help head off the threat of a so-called “tripledemic”—all three diseases hitting at once—is still difficult to say.
“There are predictive models,” says Shana Gleeson, MD, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist. “But we can’t say for sure how it’s all going to play out.”
One potential factor is how many people get the new shots, Dr. Gleeson explains. “Another is how much more likely these viruses will be to spread at a time when most people have stopped wearing masks and taking other precautions, such as avoiding crowded, enclosed spaces,” she says.
Below, Yale Medicine experts tell you what you need to know to keep yourself and your family safe from COVID, RSV, and influenza.
What is the difference between COVID, RSV, and Flu?
All three of these respiratory illnesses are caused by highly contagious viruses. They all cause cold-like symptoms, such as cough and runny nose, although each has unique features, such as loss of taste or smell with COVID (although the latter symptom is reported to be less frequent than it was before the Omicron variant), and wheezing in children with RSV.
While many people experience mild illness from these viruses, factors like age and general health put some at higher risk for hospitalization and death. In the case of COVID, even healthy young people have developed Long COVID, defined as signs, symptoms, and conditions that can continue for weeks, months, or years beyond the initial infection or develop later.
Flu can come on fast and cause the entire body to ache within a couple of days. COVID symptoms may appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus, while RSV takes four to six days; in the latter two diseases, symptoms build slowly.
If you get sick from any of these illnesses, it may be difficult to figure out which one you have, although a rapid home test may rule out COVID, and a doctor can provide laboratory tests for flu and RSV, if necessary.
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Source: Yale Medicine
