January 8, 2023 – It appears the United States has avoided the much-feared “triple epidemic” of respiratory diseases over the vacations. In early December, two triple threat viruses – influenza and respiratory syncytial virus – began to spike, setting off alarm bells amongst health officials and medical personnel.
Current data shows that flu and RSV peaked before the vacations.
“In some areas we are seeing an increase or stagnation in activity, but in most areas it is declining,” said Shikha Garg, MD, a medical epidemiologist on the CDC, NPR.
The variety of RSV cases has steadily declined since peaking in mid-November. The virus, which is especially dangerous for infants and young children, remains to be circulating in higher concentrations than lately. CDC data shows.
Flu activity has been steadily declining since early December, when 25% of flu tests were positive for the virus and nearly 26,000 people were hospitalized weekly. The latest flu data shows that 15% of tests conducted are positive for flu and hospitalizations have dropped to 19,000 per week.
Flu activity stays high. 11 states, including New York City, are still within the CDC's highest reporting category for the number of individuals visiting outpatient clinics for fever and cough or sore throat. The states are California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Texas.
The latest member of the tripledemic club is COVID-19, and its numbers are rising. Hospitalizations have reached a day by day average of 47,417, the very best since last March. The New York Times reported. Test positivity is at 16%, a rise of 21% within the last two weeks.
According to NPR, coronavirus levels in wastewater, which give insight into the spread of the virus, have tripled or quadrupled, in response to federal officials.
“We're seeing a continued rise in COVID infections across the country,” Ashish Jha, MD, the White House's top COVID-19 official, told NPR. “So COVID is what we're most concerned about in the days and weeks ahead.”