September 2, 2021 – San Antonio is recording more cases of respiratory viruses ahead of the typical respiratory spike in the winter. According to a report from My San Antonio, UT Health San Antonio has seen “about 10 cases of influenza in the first three weeks of August.”
This is an unusual spike outside of the respiratory window of November to February.
Dr. Jan Patterson, infectious diseases specialist at UT Health San Antonio, said, “It is a concern. That’s why we really favor protecting children and educators by wearing a mask, especially while COVID-19 is still circulating quite a bit. There’s still a lot of COVID-19 out there.”
This surge concerns UT Health because so many hospitals are full of COVID patients. The report says that in “Bexar County, the COVID-19 level is severe with 1,313 COVID-19 patients in the hospitals as of August 30. According to data from the City of San Antonio, 369 are in ICU, and 245 are on ventilators.”
In addition to the flu, Patterson also says that they are seeing a lot of RSV cases in “children and some in adults” and strep throat.
There isn’t a concrete reason for why spikes are happening now, but Patterson suspects that people are masking less than they were last year. Students are also back in school, with no option for remote learning this year.
Patterson encourages everyone to “mask up and get vaccinated” to protect yourself from the viruses. It is important to remember that this year’s flu season will likely be severe, prompting experts to encourage people into getting the flu and COVID-19 vaccines at the same time. With the Delta variant running rampant through the country, it’s important to prepare ourselves for what could be a tumultuous flu and respiratory season.