America is facing intense heat during this summer, but the CDC warns that there may be an upcoming tripledemic arriving in the winter.
Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is already planning for the upcoming cold and flu season despite the country's scorching heat waves this summer.
According to Cohen, there will be three bugs, or viruses, throughout the country: COVID-19, the flu, and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
She said it is essential for us as a country to ensure that the American people know all three and what they can do to defend themselves.
All three respiratory viruses are not widespread, but the CDC has noticed a minor rise in COVID-related ER visits and positive COVID-19 testing. Additionally, the decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations has come to a stop.
Although Omicron XBB subvariants continue to be the most common type of COVID-19, the World Health Organization noted on July 19 that the frequency of a new XBB variant, the EG.5, is increasing globally and in the United States.
According to the WHO, no proof exists that it leads to more severe illness. According to Cohen, the infection is still treatable with COVID-19 vaccinations. This autumn, the U.S. will have access to vaccinations for the first time for the RSV.
These injections, coupled with a newborn monoclonal antibody injection and a third vaccination awaiting clearance, can significantly lower the number of virus cases, which usually affects newborns and older adults the most.
Children's hospitals in late 2022 were overrun by infants and young children whose immune systems hadn't been exposed to the virus during the lockdown due to an unanticipatedly significant rise in RSV infections.
A monoclonal antibody injection to aid in RSV prevention for kids up to the age of two was given approval by the Food and Drug Administration on July 17. This works by injecting antibodies against RSV straight into the circulation, unlike a vaccination that stimulates the body to produce its antibodies.
The first RSV vaccination for expectant mothers, who would subsequently pass these antibodies to their unborn children, might even receive FDA approval as early as August.
We're going to have to learn how to deliver those vaccines in a way that's effective in actually reaching the population at a time when there's already vaccine fatigue.
- Cohen
She concludes: "Right now, they’re having a pretty standard flu season in the Southern Hemisphere. But it's still early days."
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