Tag: concerned

Health officials concerned by rise in flu, RSV cases – The Suffolk News-Herald

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Health officials concerned by rise in flu, RSV cases – The Suffolk News-Herald

Health officials concerned by rise in flu, RSV cases

Published 5:48 pm Friday, November 25, 2022

The Virginia healthcare community is encouraging local residents who haven’t done so to get vaccinated against the flu, get vaccinated or boosted against COVID-19, and to take personal health and safety precautions as we enter what could be a particularly intense flu and respiratory illness season.

This year’s flu season is already showing early, concerning signs that it may be worse than in recent years, Virginia Department of Health officials said in a recent news release.

There are also increasing numbers of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases, which may cause serious illness and hospitalization in children and older adults.

If these trends continue, healthcare officials both locally and across Virginia say this could strain healthcare systems in some communities. Virginia doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers are already being inundated with a surge of sick patients seeking care, filling hospital beds, and in many cases requiring longer hospital stays.

Data from Virginia hospitals and public health surveillance information from the Virginia Department of Health suggest that the Commonwealth faces the prospect of a particularly challenging flu and respiratory disease season throughout this fall and winter. Emergency department and urgent care clinic visits involving patient diagnoses of RSV have quadrupled since early September and remain significantly elevated.

Visits for flu-like illness are also rising – for the week ending November 5, such visits are at least four times higher than in the same week for each of the past four years, according to VDH.

In Virginia, we have seen a 41 percent increase in flu-like illness and an overall 18 percent increase in respiratory illness from the week prior. Virginia Immunization Information System data from July 1-November 9, 2022 indicates that flu vaccination uptake in children younger than 12 is lower this year as compared to the same time periods during the previous three years.

Virginia Department of Health Eastern Region Public Information Officer Larry Hill gave some general everyday techniques for people to stay safe and healthy.

“The best defense is a flu shot,” Hill said. “Also wash your hands, cover your sneeze or cough and stay home when sick.”

Likewise, the Western Tidewater Health District shared a Facebook post on Nov. 13 with information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

Described as a “common respiratory virus that

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Wellness Industry experts Be concerned CDC’s Covid Vaccination Costs Seem Inflated

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Wellness Industry experts Be concerned CDC’s Covid Vaccination Costs Seem Inflated
Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Wellness News

For virtually a month, the Centers for Ailment Control and Prevention’s on-line vaccine tracker has demonstrated that virtually all people 65 and more mature in the United States — 99.9% — has been given at least 1 covid vaccine dose.

That would be extraordinary — if genuine.

But wellbeing experts and condition officers say it is certainly not.

They observe that the CDC as of Dec. 5 has recorded extra seniors at least partly vaccinated — 55.4 million — than there are folks in that age group — 54.1 million, according to the most recent census knowledge from 2019. The CDC’s vaccination rate for citizens 65 and older is also appreciably bigger than the 89% vaccination price located in a poll performed in November by KFF.

In the same way, a YouGov poll, conducted final thirty day period for The Economist, located 83% of men and women 65 and up reported they had acquired at least an original dose of vaccine.

And the CDC counts 21 states as acquiring pretty much all their senior citizens at least partly vaccinated (99.9%). But numerous of these states show much decrease figures in their vaccine databases, including California, with 86% inoculated, and West Virginia, with approximately 90% as of Dec. 6.

The questionable CDC knowledge on seniors’ vaccination charges illustrates one of the prospective complications health experts have flagged about CDC’s covid vaccination knowledge.

Realizing with accuracy what proportion of the population has rolled up sleeves for a covid shot is vital to community overall health initiatives, claimed Dr. Howard Forman, a professor of general public health and fitness at Yale College College of Drugs.

“These figures make any difference,” he said, specifically amid attempts to boost the fees of booster doses administered. As of Dec. 5, about 47% of men and women 65 and more mature experienced acquired a booster shot given that the federal government built them offered in September.

“I’m not positive how trusted the CDC figures are,” he said, pointing to the discrepancy among condition facts and the agency’s 99.9% determine for seniors, which he stated just cannot be appropriate.

“You want to know the finest facts to strategy and put together and know wherever to put assets in location — significantly in spots that are grossly undervaccinated,” Forman reported.

Acquiring an precise determine on the proportion of inhabitants vaccinated is hard for

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