CINCINNATI —

Many hospital systems across greater Cincinnati are dealing with multiple viruses circulating after Thanksgiving.

"Most of our hospitals have been running fairly close to capacity now anyway for quite some time," professor of infectious disease at UC Health, Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum said.

With COVID-19, the flu, and RSV going around, hospitals like UC Medical Center are feeling the impact.

"What this does with all of the viruses around is it just pushes all of our hospitals in the area to just be a little bit fuller. The emergency rooms are just a little bit more crowded," Fichtenbaum said.

According to the Health Collaborative, COVID-19 hospitalizations across Ohio counties in greater Cincinnati are at 176 patients. That's 41 more than Friday. About 180 people are hospitalized with the flu. It's a major spike from last week.

"It was a pretty significant increase of flu hospitalizations over the past few days. It's really spun up the hospital operations of it," vice president of clinical strategies for the Health Collaborative, Tiffany Mattingly said.

Mattingly says health systems are trying to keep up.

"The majority of them have you been at capacity at some point over the past week or so," Mattingly said.

While we work through these viruses, experts predict there may be more on the way.

"I suspect we'll see some more stuff because this is really the first full year that everybody's back in circulation not wearing masks and we're just sharing viruses," Fichtenbaum said.

Fichtenbaum says this is one of the most potent flu seasons since 2009. That's why he's urging people to roll up their sleeves and get the flu vaccine sooner rather than later.

In Iowa, the Southeast Warren school district dismissed classes at 1:30 p.m. on Monday and canceled classes for Tuesday because so many kids are out sick.

Families received an email alerting them of the changes.

"Right now, we're seeing a lot of strep throat and some RSV in children and unfortunately the supply for these antibiotics and over-the-counter products are in very short supply," said John Forbes, the owner of Medicap Pharmacy.

Forbes says the shortage is putting them in a tough position.

Typically, his pharmacy fills multiple Amoxicillin prescriptions every day.

"Right now we have just one bottle left in the pharmacy," Forbes said.

Forbes says this is the first time he's seen a shortage this severe.

His wholesalers tell him it'll be more than a week before they will be getting these critical medications.

And keeping that in mind, Forbes says it's important to get your vaccinations to help stop the spread of illness.

"By you getting the vaccines, you also protect yourself but you also protect people around you. So you can reduce the risk of spreading this virus to other people," Forbes said.

Researchers are on the cusp of rolling out a new vaccine to combat the respiratory syncytial virus amid an increase in cases in recent months.RSV has become the second leading cause of hospitalization, and tens of thousands of people a year die from it. Children under 2 and adults older than 60 are most at risk for serious disease, and a vaccine has been elusive -- until now."It will be a huge, huge breakthrough for us to have an RSV vaccine available," said Dr. James Campbell, professor of pediatrics and the University of Maryland School of Medicine.RELATED: Sinai pediatrician describes ICU availability amid increase in RSV casesModerna released preliminary results of their vaccine for RSV that shows it's more than 80% effective at preventing serious disease in people older than 60. The company is preparing to submit the vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration for approval, which follows submissions from Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline late last year."The Pfizer vaccine, they also relayed results on giving that same vaccine to pregnant women, and then what happens is the antibodies the woman makes, gets passed through the placenta into the baby, and they showed very good protection in the first three months of life," Campbell said.Clinical trials are underway on a vaccine for babies and young children, who are among the high-risk groups for developing complications and dying from RSV.RELATED: Maryland hospitals concerned over surge of children with RSVThese would be the first RSV vaccines approved, which would be a feat because researchers have been working on them since the 1960s. Moderna's version uses the mRNA technology made famous by its COVID-19 vaccine."The reason why they could move so quickly on the COVID vaccine was because they had already been studying this RSV vaccine that we're just learning about now, and they used that same technology, and a lot of the tricks they found from that, in order to develop the COVID vaccine," Campbell said.RSV video playlist below:Campbell cautioned the results in the RSV vaccine study are preliminary and are not yet peer-reviewed, so while promising, he's waiting for the full details."That doesn't take away that this is really exciting news, but I think everyone should be waiting to see what the final, all the data show for this vaccine and the other RSV vaccines," Campbell said.Campbell said researchers are hopeful that some of these vaccines will be approved in time for RSV season in the fall.LINK: Maryland Department of Health website for RSV

Imagine if when you got sick, you knew exactly what you were sick with, and therefore had an idea of how it spreads and how to treat it. That could be a reality in the future with the prevalence of at-home testing for other viruses beyond COVID.

Dr. Lisa Maragakis is a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She says the convenient and easy-to-use at-home tests for COVID-19 were a game changer during the pandemic.

"And this really raises the question of why we don't have more widespread at-home testing for other respiratory viruses like influenza or respiratory syncytial virus RSV," Dr. Maragakis said.

The so-called 'tripeldemic' of COVID-19, influenza and RSV last year brought to light the need for at-home testing for other viruses.

"One new challenge in respiratory virus season is having co-circulation of influenza, RSV and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19," Dr. Maragakis said. "And since we do have treatments that are different for the different viruses, we do need to know and cannot make the kind of empiric decisions or diagnoses that we used to be able to make in past flu seasons."

Dr. Maragakis says the science is there to create these types of tests, but they aren't widely available yet. Global life sciences company Labcorp announced last year emergency-use authorization from the FDA for an at-home collection kit that simultaneously detects COVID-19, influenza, or RSV.

You can order one online that will be shipped to your house free of charge if you have insurance. Without insurance, it's $169 dollars.

However, it's not a rapid test. It's a PCR test that you send to a lab, so it takes several days to get results. As at-home testing becomes more prevalent, Dr. Maragakis says public health leaders will need to take new challenges into consideration.

"We know, right now, that the publicly reported numbers for COVID-19 are just the tip of the iceberg because so many people are being diagnosed by these at-home tests and those data don't flow into the reported numbers," Dr. Maragakis said.

Dr. Maragakis says one solution could be developing a way for people to self report data from at-home tests. The other limitation is that not everyone may use the test correctly, and results could be inaccurate. Until health companies can provide convenient at-home tests for other viruses, Dr. Maragakis says your health care provider still offers the most precise test results.

 

The term "flurona" started a headline out of Israel and has been now been used across the globe.

Some misunderstood the term to mean a case of the flu and COVID-19 combining.

Dr. Jonathan Grein, an infectious disease doctor and director of Hospital Epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A., said that's not what's happening. H said the medical diagnosis is actually a co-infection.

At this point, Dr. Grein says co-infections of flu and COVID aren’t something to panic about.

"There does not seem to be a major signal that infection with both makes you significantly more sick, but we just don't know, and it's too early to know," Grein says. "Common sense would dictate being infected with two things is certainly not good."

The common symptoms to look for include dry cough, fever, sore throat, head or body ache, and exhaustion.

Grein says his hospital has only seen a few people with flu and COVID at the same time. Just like co-infections elsewhere in the country, all the cases were mild and in younger patients, he said.

Experts say that’s because the younger people have less immunity because they haven’t been exposed to as many viruses.

Unvaccinated people who are very social, don’t mask are more likely to get a flu and COVID co-infection. Elderly and immunocompromised people are more prone to having both illnesses turn severe.

"There is a real concern that we will see more influenza that circulates along with COVID-19," Grein says. " And, I think there's a real concern that that could really increase the number of people that get severely ill or have to come to the hospital."

Medical experts encourage people to get vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 to protect themself from the viruses.

This story was originally reported by Lindsey Theis on Newsy.com.

A New Hampshire man is recovering from simultaneous cases of the flu and COVID-19.Todd Tracy said he began experiencing blinding headaches, body aches, fever and chills early last week. After a negative at-home COVID-19 test, he went to urgent care, where he was tested for both COVID-19 and the flu.Both came back positive, which he said was a shock to him and to the doctor."She said it can happen," Tracy said. "She was very surprised to see the result, because she said she saw a lot of people every single day for many, many months with COVID happening, and she has not seen a case like this yet."Medical researchers say there have been people infected with COVID-19 and influenza at the same time since the pandemic began. It wasn't much of a problem last winter because the flu was kept in check by people wearing masks and not getting together as much.Experts said having both illnesses at the same time doesn't necessarily mean that someone will get extremely sick. An immune response to one virus could help the body fight off the other virus, but more research is being done.Tracy said he was vaccinated for COVID-19, but he had not yet received a booster and never got the flu shot, both decisions he regrets.

OMAHA, Neb. —

A Nebraska family is urging people to get the flu shot as their daughter continues to fight for her life after getting the virus two years ago.

The young mother has been unresponsive and is now in long-term care.

Her family said it all started with a flu diagnosis.

This family said their daughter's life may have been different if she'd have gotten her flu shot.

“She got her CT scan yesterday. So, it's not worse, but it's not better,” said Vicky Bookout, Crystal’s mom.

Hospital beds have been the reality for Crystal Velasquez after a flu diagnosis two years ago.

“Crystal is at Madonna now. And she was on a vent, but now she's on the extended care. Where she'll be, I mean, the rest of her life,” Bookout said.

Now 38, her family said she's been in a mostly unresponsive state since 2019.

“It's even hard to go up there and see her but then it's harder to leave her,” Bookout said.

She's made some small improvements, they said.

“She laughs and she smiles now. And she didn't do that on the vent unit. But she's doing it now,” Bookout said.

But her life is vastly different than it was before.

A Seahawks football fan, lover of music and giving soul, Velasquez's family says she started to feel sick in early December 2019.

After getting medication for her influenza diagnosis, they say she was sent home.

Then, they say she went back for a chest X-ray, which revealed pneumonia, but was again sent home.

“She came by the house and said she couldn't breathe. And she was coughing. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't do anything,” Bookout said.

Her mom said she was rushed to the hospital and intubated. That shock to her body caused her to have a stroke.

Those moments would be some of the last her mom would have with her while conscious.

“She did tell me she didn't want to die because she just had a bad feeling that something was wrong,” Bookout said.

"You don’t ever think this is going to happen to your child, especially from the flu.”

Bookout said the recovery has been hard and she believes the flu shot could have helped.

They hope their daughter will continue to improve and want others to take every virus seriously and get vaccinated.

“I know people that don't believe in those shots, the flu shots, and that's up to them. And I have nothing against him for that. But I know it's not going to stop me,” Bookout said.

As winter approaches, schools are preparing for a number of illnesses in addition to COVID-19.

“Since we especially didn't see a flu season last season, we’re on the ready for a potentially severe influenza season. Particularly because of circulation of COVID,” said Dr. Sara Saporta-Keating, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs.

But schools are more prepared than before after balancing education with pandemic safety.

“Push this button and it will turn on -- like this -- and if it's green that means you’re good,” 7-year-old Lexi Ansardi said. She is a second grader at Centennial Elementary School. Every morning, she checks her temperature and with the help of her mom, Ann. She can keep track of her health on an app.

“I am concerned about flu, COVID of course, but this app, it actually gives you ideas about what might be happening with your student depending on the fever,” Ann Ansardi said. “It really gives the parents a way of knowing what's going on in the building in terms of health.”

Most families at this elementary school are using these thermometers consistently through something called the FLUency program -- a free program to reduce the spread of illness in schools through health technology company Kinsa.

“It is an initiative to stop the spread of illness in classrooms to help the entire community know more about what symptoms and illnesses are going around,” Nita Nehru, vice president of communications at Kinsa, said.

“On a population level, we’re able to understand where symptoms are starting and how fast they are spreading,” she explained. Nehru said the app provides anonymous, aggregated information on what symptoms and illnesses are going around in any given classroom, school, or community.

“It’s a way of reducing some of your clinic load for school nurses,” she said. “Schools, right now, are really acting as that first line of defense, and that’s just not sustainable.”

With the app, it’s easier for schools to see multiple cases of illness at the onset, leading to more accurate decisions about when to temporarily go to remote learning or distance kids more.

“Once you put the app in, you have a running tally of what your illness and your child has looked like…and you take that right to the doctor with you,” Ann Ansardi said.

Pediatric doctors are prepared for what they could see this season.

“What we have been doing to mitigate COVID can also be helpful for mitigating flu. So the first thing is good hand washing, another thing is making sure that if you're ill you don't go to work or school. And then getting vaccinated if you're able to against the flu particularly, as well as COVID,” Dr. Saporta-Keating said. She said she is also seeing higher rates of more common respiratory viruses.

“Usually we see those later in the season, so really it's important for schools again to be making sure they understand what’s going on,” she explained.

Centennial Elementary School principal Kim Noyes said the FLUency program has been a huge help in detecting potential outbreaks.

“The vast majority of our school and our families are using the digital thermometer and I think that has led to very low incidents of illness in our school,” she said.

All it takes is a little participation from students and families.

“If one person is sick, a whole bunch of other people can get sick. So if you're sick, this helps,” Lexi said.

As we move into the winter months, Noyes feels prepared. “We can't control the future but we can take every single preventative step possible,” she said.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After a so-called “twindemic” of COVID-19 and the flu failed to materialize last year, this year's flu season is expected to roar back.

“Because of all the masks and all the precautions, we basically did not have a flu season,” infectious disease expert Dr. David Dodson said of the last flu season.

However, this time around, more cases of the flu are likely to arise.

Dr. Anthony Santella, an infectious disease expert and a professor of health administration policy at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, says this year isn't one to mess around with.

“The flu is incredibly difficult to predict,” he said. “I know everyone wants that crystal ball, 'What's going to happen? When is it going to happen, even outside of COVID?' And that's very challenging.”

He said there are signs and circumstances that point to a far more active, upcoming flu season.

“Children are back at school,” Dr. Santella said. “People are back at work. People are socializing, traveling both domestically and abroad. And that means that those bugs, viruses like what we're talking about, lots of bacteria and other things are circulating.”

Right now, the CDC is tracking confirmed flu cases. Their findings show most of the country is experiencing either a minimal or low number of cases, with the exception of Mississippi, which is seeing a moderate level of flu activity.

Yet, Dr. Santella said that could change as the weather begins to get colder and people spend more time indoors, coupled with COVID fatigue.

“We know the data is pretty clear this year that people feel burdened, they feel frustrated and they feel tired by continuing to maintain those protective health behaviors,” he said.

That is why experts say getting a flu shot by the end of October is so important. The flu vaccines are developed based on the flu strains circulating in other parts of the world.

“This year, they've done things a little bit differently, where instead of having some vaccines that protect against two strains and some that protect against four, all four major vaccine candidates protect against all four strains,” Dr. Santella said.

As for those who have yet to get a COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Santella said it’s safe to get both together.

“You can get them at the same time,” he said. “There's no harm. There's no counteracting of the products.”

Both of which are vaccines created to help people avoid the worst effects of two deadly viruses.

CINCINNATI —

Many college students will begin returning to campus and class next week.

The spring semester will be a little different for them. Modified start dates, virtual learning, COVID-19 testing, and in some cases, mandatory flu shots are factors coming into play.

At the University of Cincinnati, 70 percent of coursework will be online for the spring semester.

"We have a required return to campus testing for any student that's a residential student or has an interest in coming to campus for any reason," said Dr. Chris Lewis, vice provost for academic programs at UC.

Students can get tested on campus. Lewis said more than 1,800 have already done so.

"It's very easy for the students and very quick. I'm told that from the time they show up, they can walk out the door in 60 seconds," Lewis said.

Any UC student registered for more than six credit hours is also required to get the flu shot.

At Xavier University, students are not required to get the flu vaccine.

"It's something we're monitoring, but currently, we feel really good about the number of students who have the flu vaccine," said Jean Griffin, dean of students at Xavier University.

Before heading back to Xavier on Jan. 19, students are being asked to take several precautions.

"While they're at home, we're asking them to kind of limit their exposure to other people. Do self quarantine at home. Get a test if you can before you come back to campus, " Griffin said.

Ohio University launched a new testing program for the spring semester. All OU students are required to take an at-home saliva-based COVID-19 test before returning to campus. Students living on campus will be also required to get tested for COVID weekly. Off-campus students will be tested every other week.

Ohio State students will also have to complete an at-home COVID test prior to returning and then a second test once they arrive in Columbus.

OU and OSU do not require flu vaccinations.

Miami University says it will be testing all student for the coronavirus upon arrival back to campus. Miami does not require the flu shot.

CINCINNATI — A popular question asked of many medical experts right now is “When can we say the pandemic is over?” The answer isn’t what most people would expect.

“This will never be over,” said Dr. Steve Feagins, medical director for Hamilton County Public Health. “We will move from pandemic to endemic.”

That’s not as bad as it might sound. The answer is rooted in defining the difference between those two terms.

Feagins said a pandemic is an epidemic on multiple continents in which case spread is deadly and uncontained.

Endemic means something is always going to be around — like the flu — but the case numbers are manageable and do not rise above a certain level.

“For example, during the peak of the flu season, there are in this nation somewhere between 50 and 150 flu deaths a day for an average of 100,” Feagins said. “Today, there are an average of 600 COVID deaths per day. So, what is it we feel comfortable with? 300? 200? 600?”

He said it’s a case rate over death rate that determines when we will have moved from pandemic to endemic, not a number of people or percentage of people vaccinated.

“I was on a Zoom with Dr. Fauci and others where that very question was coming up, and it comes down to what we’re willing to endure,” Feagins said. “Universal mitigation is more difficult than the number of deaths. We don’t have a flu year-round — we just have those deaths during flu season. We’ll have the same with COVID.”