As RSV appears to wane, flu is on rise in 'really unusual' season

She and other experts say COVID may have thrown off regular seasonal patterns for some viruses, including RSV and the flu. Masking and isolating kept a lot of people from getting sick. When they stopped doing those things, the viruses returned. And since most people hadn’t had the viruses for a couple of years, they didn’t have recently acquired immunity to protect them.

Eckard said most people also haven’t had their flu shots yet. “So just about everybody's unprotected, and I'm sure that that is contributing to the spread. People really need to go out and get the flu vaccine as soon as possible. And I always say for people who have children under 6 months of age, everybody in the family needs to be vaccinated to protect that baby. The flu vaccine isn’t approved for infants less than 6 months of age, but they are often among our sickest patients.”

Eckard said people who have already had the flu this year still need to get vaccinated. “With flu, there are typically multiple strains that circulate during the season, and we often have two peaks. For example, one with flu A and one with flu B. So even if you've had the flu this year, you still need to get the vaccine because it provides protection against multiple strains. It can be a debilitating illness. Getting the flu shot prevents you from being sick on the couch with a high fever and terrible body aches for a week or two.”

Flu and RSV aren’t the only viruses circulating right now. So far in October, children have been also admitted to the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital with rhinovirus, enterovirus, adenovirus, COVID and other respiratory illnesses. Some of them have more than one infection. It all adds up to what Eckard called an unusual season for viruses. “It just got started really early this year."