COVID-19, flu and RSV cases are filling up Tennessee clinics and hospital ERs
This year's holiday season has left Tennessee with a lingering hangover — a sharp rise in respiratory illnesses. The increase has led to Nashville clinics and hospital emergency departments routinely filled with patients with COVID-19 and influenza.
Tennessee and the rest of the South are now reporting "high" or "very high" levels of flu activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Volunteer State is now at that highest level of flu activity, with a 12% increase in related outpatient visits in the final days of December, according to the CDC and the Tennessee Department of Health. At least one Tennessee child from an undisclosed part of the state has died from the virus, the state Department of Health reported.
Meanwhile, new cases of COVID-19 have been rising in Tennessee since October. As of Dec. 24, the most recent data available, more than 460 hospitalized patients were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Of those, 63 received treatment in intensive care units, according to that report. Those are the highest numbers since early March.
"We're definitely seeing a significant number of individuals coming in with upper respiratory symptoms — you know, nasal congestion, sore throats, cough, muscle aches, fever as well," said Dr. Tyler Barrett, executive medical director for emergency services at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "We're still seeing a bit of COVID but nothing like we were seeing several years ago. Most of the patients I've seen in our (ER) with symptoms haven't been vaccinated."
Additionally, confirmed Respiratory syncytial virus cases are at their highest numbers statewide in more than a year. RSV is potentially dangerous for young children and older adults with chronic diseases and/or compromised immune systems.
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Nationally, the number of flu vaccine doses administered was at its lowest level in five years, as of mid-December, CDC data show. As of Dec. 9, 17% of adults 60 and older had been inoculated against RSV, the CDC reported. That's the same percentage of Americans who have received the latest COVID-19 booster vaccine (in Tennessee, it's only 10.6%).
Physicians say this year's strains of respiratory illnesses aren't, generally, particularly more dangerous than those in previous years. This is certainly the case with COVID-19, whose current strains aren't killing and/or hospitalizing patients at rates even close to the peak, 2021 season.
Still, RSV is the leading cause of infant hospitalizations. A new treatment developed to protect them has been in short supply this year.
"We encourage those who are concerned about RSV to reach out to their primary care provider for specified guidance on vaccination," said Matthew Peters, spokesman for the Metro Nashville Public Health Department. "Beyond vaccination, mitigation practices like staying home when sick, washing hands and covering coughs can help the community mitigate the effects of respiratory illnesses this season."
A vaccine for pregnant women, which can protect their eventual newborns, is widely available, however. So too are flu shots and the latest COVID-19 booster. The website vaccines.gov can help people find convenient locations to get them.
Lauren Taylor, an emergency room physician for Ascension Saint Thomas hospitals in Nashville, said she's treated as at least as many COVID-19 patients as influenza patients this season. In both cases, the un-boosted and unvaccinated have tended to be more severe, Taylor said.
"Things often surge after the holidays because people are congregating, and so contagious illnesses spread quickly. And that's what I think we're seeing now," she said. "But I don't think the severity of the (COVID) illnesses is as bad as 2020, 2021."
Frank Gluck is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at fgluck@tennessean.com. Follow him on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @FrankGluck.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: COVID, flu and RSV cases flood Tennessee hospitals, emergency rooms
