Other seasonal illnesses besides Covid right now

[Ginevra]

Do we have any hard data on this? Last year going into winter, we were warned about the “twin-demic” of flu and Covid. Well, woohoo, that didn’t happen. In fact, according to an article in The Atlantic, in the 2020-2021 season, we virtually “solved” seasonal flu. It practically disappeared. 
 

So, now I keep hearing about how people are having the flu and colds as usual (some even say high levels of flu). Anecdotally, I’m not seeing that. In my household I’m not seeing it. The people I know who are sick either have Covid or don’t know because it’s so hard to get a test. 
 

Im just wondering if anyone knows about this beyond the rumor mill. 

[Wheres Toto]

I'm seeing mainly Covid too, and not much about flu or colds.  But I'm also in an area with pretty good masking.  I could see flu becoming a bigger deal again in areas that aren't taking precautions anymore.

[Katy]

I don’t know about hard data but I’ve heard plenty of reports of RSV & Influenza A. And many of the younger children who died had both RSV and Covid. One of DH’s friends has a 4 year old hospitalized with RSV right now, and one of my friends has a 3 year old released after a week in the PICU during Thanksgiving.

[wathe]

Canada keeps good influenza stats.  Weekly and annual reports available.  So far, flu activity has been low.

[fairfarmhand]

There’s a nasty virus circulating here. Fever, runny nose, wracking cough. It’s not covid, flu or any named virus. But it’s horrible. And it’s everywhere.
 

a third grader at one of our local schools died from it.

[Hilltopmom]

RSV, colds, & flu around here. Seems about the same rate as pre covid 

[Pawz4me]

CDC influenza summary 12/27/21 (for week ending 12/18)

[BlsdMama]

Well… kiddo just had a 102 temp, ruptured eardrum, and heavy cough - two negative Binax and a negative PCR. 
 

We’ve had influenza B as well. 
 

At Thanksgiving,two kids had respiratory stuff and eye inflammation - nope. Negative tests and we tested both twice. 
 

We’ve tested a lot…. A lot. Negative every single time. So, yes, other stuff definitely going around. 

[Spryte]

We have close friends who all had Flu A the weekend before Christmas. Nurse said it’s going around here.

I think more people were masking last winter, here anyway. I see almost no masking these days. 

Our pedi said she’s seeing a lot of RSV, too.

[wathe]

Apparently we keep RSV stats too.

[SKL]

Yeah I don't know about last year since they were only really testing for Covid.  You either had it or you didn't.  Also 20% of supposed Covid cases were "probable."

[mmasc]

4 minutes ago, SKL said:

Yeah I don't know about last year since they were only really testing for Covid.  You either had it or you didn't.  Also 20% of supposed Covid cases were "probable."

This ^^^ Ive been so frustrated a couple of times when I’ve taken my kids in for sickness. One time last year at the peak, the pcm would only see my child *after* getting the covid test and waiting 5 days for results. So I took him to urgent care. He had an ear infection. I was so mad that he would’ve suffered with that for 5 whole days bc they needed to check for covid first! There are other illnesses people!! (The urgent care did check for covid and strep, which were both negative. But definitely an ear infection)

Then, I took oldest ds in a few months ago to a different urgent care and they tested for covid and said “we’ll have the results back in 24 hours’ and was about to leave the room, like “welp, that’s it!”  I was like “ummm...and if it *isn’t* covid??”  Dr basically said just treat like a cold. That urgent care wasn’t good though bc they basically didn’t even check him out to see if he had anything else. I was mostly wanting his lungs listened to just to make sure they were clear. 

[LauraClark]

Our family and several other families we know had some kind of awful cold around Thanksgiving. All 4 of my kids got mild pink eye from it, I got an ear infection, and we are still coughing a little (it wasn't covid because we have that right now and covid is significantly more mild for us than that cold was). Similar symptoms with other friends we've talked to.

[LauraClark]

3 minutes ago, mmasc said:

This ^^^ Ive been so frustrated a couple of times when I’ve taken my kids in for sickness. One time last year at the peak, the pcm would only see my child *after* getting the covid test and waiting 5 days for results. So I took him to urgent care. He had an ear infection. I was so mad that he would’ve suffered with that for 5 whole days bc they needed to check for covid first! There are other illnesses people!! (The urgent care did check for covid and strep, which were both negative. But definitely an ear infection)

Then, I took oldest ds in a few months ago to a different urgent care and they tested for covid and said “we’ll have the results back in 24 hours’ and was about to leave the room, like “welp, that’s it!”  I was like “ummm...and if it *isn’t* covid??”  Dr basically said just treat like a cold. That urgent care wasn’t good though bc they basically didn’t even check him out to see if he had anything else. I was mostly wanting his lungs listened to just to make sure they were clear. 

Oh, that's frustrating!

[SKL]

7 minutes ago, mmasc said:

This ^^^ Ive been so frustrated a couple of times when I’ve taken my kids in for sickness. One time last year at the peak, the pcm would only see my child *after* getting the covid test and waiting 5 days for results. So I took him to urgent care. He had an ear infection. I was so mad that he would’ve suffered with that for 5 whole days bc they needed to check for covid first! There are other illnesses people!! (The urgent care did check for covid and strep, which were both negative. But definitely an ear infection)

Then, I took oldest ds in a few months ago to a different urgent care and they tested for covid and said “we’ll have the results back in 24 hours’ and was about to leave the room, like “welp, that’s it!”  I was like “ummm...and if it *isn’t* covid??”  Dr basically said just treat like a cold. That urgent care wasn’t good though bc they basically didn’t even check him out to see if he had anything else. I was mostly wanting his lungs listened to just to make sure they were clear. 

Yes, I took my kid and asked them to check for Covid, strep, and flu.  They tested for Covid (rapid), it came back negative, and they were packing up to leave.  I asked about the other two illnesses, and then they asked a few questions etc. and ruled them out without a test.  I paid a lot of money for urgent care, and with a sick kid, I didn't just want to know what it wasn't.  Especially if it could have been strep, which needs prescription meds to treat.

[Tiffnkids]

I have a cousin in the hospital with parainfluenza right now. Similar symptoms to covid.

[AmandaVT]

2 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

There’s a nasty virus circulating here. Fever, runny nose, wracking cough. It’s not covid, flu or any named virus. But it’s horrible. And it’s everywhere.
 

a third grader at one of our local schools died from it.

Here too - I know a few people who have gotten this one and tested negative for both covid and flu.

[ScoutTN]

Lots of flu and rsv and plain old icky, non-covid viral crud here. 

[itsheresomewhere]

Locally, from doctor friends the flu and RSV is going strong along with regular viruses.
Currently, I am getting a bit more concerned about this virus going around  that is knocking the tar out of people.  One of my boss’s family member is hospitalized with it going on week two.  Not covid or flu.  It hits hard and quick. 

[TechWife]

The CDC tracks flu and respiratory illnesses. Some data is more granular than others. Check your state DHHS to see if they have more localized info. 

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

[wathe]

I had a chance to explore further:

In Canada, RSV and parainfluenza virus are well above 6 year average, flu A well below.

Enteroviruses, rhinoviruses, adenoviruses and human metapneumovirus are at average levels.

[Terabith]

My husband and I have some kind of crud with headache, low grade fever, body aches, cough, congestion, exhaustion.  Not flu or covid but enough to make us want to wave the white flag and go to bed.  

[catz]

Yep, multiple non Covid bugs ran through our peeps here.  Friend of dd had flu a last week.   

[WildflowerMom]

Didn’t have time to read all replies…

Ds20 was sick for a week with fever, coughing, congestion, sore throat, body aches.   I tested him twice with an at-home Covid test and they came back negative.  (Those things are hard to use and I can’t imagine them being reliable, btw).   I took him to the doctor twice (he couldn’t drive, too exhausted), but didn’t go in with him.   They did not even test him for Covid.   He saw two different doctors.  Neither tested him.  I’m not sure what to think about that.    The first did test him for flu and strep, both negative.   He was finally dx’d at second visit with a bad sinus infection and put on abx.  He is fine now. Dh and I did not get sick.   Dh is not vaxxed, I am vaxed and boostered.  Ds is also vaxxed (not ready yet for booster).   I was very hands-on with ds when he was sick, even accidentally drinking after him twice.    So, all that said, I have no clue what he had.    But the symptoms were Covid-like enough for me to test.   But who knows.  

[SKL]

Oh yeah, we had some sinus crud here, but it didn't have the right symptoms to be Covid.  Like any other year, we did not all go to the doctor, because sinus crud normally resolves itself.  The only reason I had my kid tested was because (a) she additionally had some strep throat symptoms, and (b) if I'd sent her to school and she admitted to any symptoms at all, they would have sent her home due to fear of Covid.  Better to have a negative test in hand.

[kbutton]

I know people who had flu A over the holidays, and a big Children’s Hospital near us put out information about flu and RSV going around in addition to Covid, hoping people would get flu and Covid shots to help reduce future capacity over/after the holidays.

Some ERs and urgent cares have stopped rapid Covid testing patients who are stable and don’t need to be admitted. They do PCR and call them later. In addition to really sick people coming in, they are seeing people who are coming in solely for Covid testing, and it’s making it a lot harder to do their jobs. Cutting out a rapid test gets part of their time back, and when the patients don’t need to be there, they can discharge them before the PCR test comes back.

DH says half his patients some days are Covid patients. There is some flu (it’s still early for flu here) and RSV too. He’s not seen as much RSV, but other HCWs have seen it.