COVID-19, colds and coughs: reasons for rising infections

After the epidemic, winter seems to be coming again endless discomfort. Something happened?

Lately, the background music of my life is A chorus of coughs and sneezes. At work, co-workers complained of sore throats and posted sick emojis next to their names on the Slack work platform. At home, my daughter comes home from daycare with a backpack full of construction paper crafts and a often runny nose.

No matter how many times my husband and I wash our hands and hers, we microorganism They are inevitably passed on to our babies and then to us. Sometimes it seems like we barely get a break before another illness strikes.

Whether you have kids or not, this time of year you can feel like you’re stuck in a Infinite cycle of feelings. Especially since the pandemic, you and your family seem to be getting sick more often, colds are worse, and coughs last longer.

In part, it’s simple math: Nahid Bhadelia, a physician and founding director of Boston University’s Center for Emerging Infectious Disease Policy and Research, says the coronavirus is now exacerbating every virus Infectious diseases that have spread during the season. In addition to influenza and RSV, There are over 200 viruses that cause cold-like symptoms.including enteroviruses, rhinoviruses, parainfluenza viruses and common cold coronaviruses, which are close relatives of the virus that causes the new coronavirus.

According to expert observations, these viruses are not becoming more serious.But one of the reasons they might be feeling it more strongly now is that Our bodies have forgotten how to fight them, Badelia said.

Badria said the precautions we took early in the pandemic to reduce the spread of COVID-19 also slowed the spread of these other viruses.

So when people stop wearing masks and start socializing more, they are exposed to all kinds of diseases again.

In 2022, flu, RSV and Covid cases increased simultaneously, giving way to triple epidemic. In early 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that cases of strep throat, or tonsillitis, were on the rise. Norovirus, which can cause fever and vomiting, is also making a comeback along with the common cold.

Luis Ostrosky, a physician and chief of infectious diseases and epidemiology at The University of Texas Health at Houston and Memorial Hermann Hospital, said that immunity to many of the viruses that make people sick is, unfortunately, The force doesn’t last that long.this means Your body has an immune debt You have to catch up. “If your immunity reverts to a strain that was circulating three or four years ago, you have to replenish it,” Ostrowski said.

Once your body relearns how to produce antibodies to a specific virus, you may have milder symptoms and recover faster if you are exposed to the virus again, Ostrowski said.

he Coronavirus also makes us more susceptible to getting sick“Experts say. Now, this seems even more important when someone comes to work or school with a dry cough.” William Schaffner, a physician and professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said: “In the new coronavirus Before the pandemic, you would blow your nose and complain a bit, but you wouldn’t talk about it that often. “

Paying more attention to respiratory symptoms may also make us feel sick longer.Debra Langlois, a pediatrician at Mott Children’s Hospital at University of Michigan Health. But a 2013 literature review of common respiratory infections in children found that the time it takes to cure an illness is always shocking: A common cold can take 15 days to clear, and most cases take 25 days to clear up. . Cough and walk away.

Adults can also suffer from what doctors call post viral cough Other symptoms last three weeks or more after they disappear. “My own husband had a cough for several weeks after he contracted the virus,” Langlois said.

In some cases, it is possible to develop a Secondary sinus, ear or throat infection This makes it appear that one disease appears at the same time as another. “It’s really unpleasant to be sick again and again,” Langlois said. “But what really reassures us as doctors is that even if you don’t get sick for a day or two or a week, that means it’s a separate virus.”

Langlois said there are also measures that could curb at least some infections, such as vaccination Target VRS if eligible; make sure you are up to date on your flu and COVID-19 vaccinations; and apply other Lessons from the pandemicsuch as staying home when sick and wearing a mask on an airplane.

For parents like me, whose young children carry an unimaginable variety of germs, Langlois says, there’s reason to hope we won’t continue to get sick so often: Kids are less likely to cough in your face, And better at coughing. When they grow up, they wash their hands without protest.